"Next Target Tehran"?

I was poking through The Guardian this morning and came across a troubling editorial that seems to suggest we are on the brink of war with Iran. I knew relations were strained, but I didn't realize we had started placing military resources in the Gulf, as Mr. Plesch suggests, for a pending action against the Iranian regime. Here's a brief excerpt:

"There's a strong sense in the upper echelons of the White House that Iran is going to surface relatively quickly as a major issue - in the country and the world - in a very acute way," said NBC TV's Tim Russert after meeting the president. This is borne out by the fact that Bush has sent forces to the Gulf that are irrelevant to fighting the Iraqi insurgents. These include Patriot anti-missile missiles, an aircraft carrier, and cruise-missile-firing ships.

Many military analysts see these deployments as signals of impending war with Iran. The Patriot missiles are intended to shoot down Iranian missiles. The naval forces, including British ships, train to pre-empt Iranian interference with oil shipments through the straits of Hormuz.

The Russert quote is a little ambiguous but also seems to suggest that Iran is soon to become THE issue for our country (which is hard to image considering how bad things are going in Iraq.) So, is Mr. Plesch being alarmist or are we really on the brink of war with Iran? I have to admit, the thought of another, ill-conceived war in the Middle East makes me sick to my stomach. How can the Bush administration possibly think the country will support such a move? And to use the WMD excuse again is just ludicrous. As is asking what we would be willing to do to prevent another Holocaust. Blair's quote about not being able to "pick and choose our wars" is ripped from the Bush book on arrogant and pigheaded leadership. Going to war is a choice, not an inevitability.

Excuse me, I think I'm going to go throw up now.