" if we left it up to the Canadians no one in the Middle East would be attacked." Yeah. ;-) Exactly. If we left it up to any sane and responsible administration, no one would be attacked.

Kendall, the "big dog, teeth bared and growling" that you speak of is the USA, not Iran. Iran has not "vowed to wipe Israel off the map", they simply didn't say that.   And no matter how many times that myth is repeated by the USA media and political people who attempting to arrange the next war it will not change the fact that Iran NEVER made that statement. They would be delighted if Israel vanished off the map...just as Israel would be delighted it they did, but they have never said that they intend to take military action to make it happen. To clarify what I am saying, please read this article by Gwynne Dyer, a well-known Canadian political columnist, as he provides some background on Ahmadinejad's misquoted statement, which was deliberately taken out of context and used to further neocon political aims...

Read this for what Ahmadinejad really said, and in what context...

And this...for another excellent article on Iran and the USA

Isreal, meanwhile, HAS tried to wipe half of Lebanon off the map twice now. Isreal has launched pre-emptive attacks on its neighbours. Iraq has tried to wipe Iran off the map (with USA encouragement and indirect assistance). The USA and the UK have, to all intents and purposes, wiped Iraq off the map as a viable country, and the USA periodically threatens to do the same to Iran and Syria.

So who are the real aggressors here? Who are the dogs who not only show their teeth but go straight for the jugular?

These aggressors' routine is always to claim that they are protecting themselves, if not the entire world! That was Hitler's claim too, when he attacked the Jews, the Poles, and everyone else that he attacked. He was, so he said, "protecting" the German nation and saving the world from Jews, Communists, and other such terrible people, who would surely destroy us all if he didn't get them first. Ha. Ha.

The same logic is used by the Bush administration.