If the USA is not planning for a regional war (e.g. with Iran and/or Syria), why then the mention in Bush's speech of sending patriot missile batteries to Iraq? They do no good against suicide bombers or IED's, or even AK-47 toting Mahdi's. What they do is shoot-down (or pretend to shoot-down) Iranian missiles launched in retaliation for the (hypothetical or planned) US or Israeli strike(s).