Sue,

"Yes, brucie, I can read. You want we should panic and go off half-cocked? Or take a deep breath, think the situation through, and pursue every single possible course of action that our very best strategists and tacticians and diplomats can come up with first?"

I did not suggest or imply we should panic and go off half cocked. I did say that letting the Iranians know where things stood would make matters clear. What do you see wrong with telling someone that if they attack you, you will respond? Or are only the Iranians allowed to do that? It must be the thinking of their government, because nothing happens there without government approval. What's to think through? They have already said "we will crush Israel and the U.S." Maybe it heralds an opening for diplomacy. Maybe part of that diplomacy could be 'here's what will happen if you try."

I have no bug up my ass--as you so blithely put it--with regard to you. What's yours with me?