I seem to recall Ms Rice and several other mouthpieces for the regime saying "we wouldn't want the smoking gun to turn out to be a mushroom cloud." Although this statement is semantically nul, it is a powerful piece of rhetoric which directly communicates the notion that there is such a danger. This was a Bush house talking point, not some random articulation on her part. It was a party line.

As to your question of Saddam vice Iran, I have no idea. I expect he would get nervous about it. It's actually another vector, to me, of the possibility that Iran has done a lot more manipulating of events than has been known about; somehow they come out with the US drawn down and fatigued by taking out their worst neighbor and threat, Saddam. I am reminded that the Persians were renowned as chess players once upon a time.


A