Iran - when I don't want 2 + 2 + 2 to add up to 6

ok... here's the first + 2, hadley in israel talking about iran with olmert...

Visiting US national security advisor Stephen Hadley was to discuss Iran's nuclear programme with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday night, public radio said.

A senior Israeli official confirmed the meeting was to take place but declined to give details.

The announcement came just hours after the deputy commander of Iran's army Mohammad Reza Ashtiani warned that his country would "eliminate Israel from the global arena" if it were attacked by the Jewish state.

Stewart Tuttle, the spokesman for the US embassy, said Hadley's talks with top Israeli officials would cover "issues of mutual interest, and a good guess is these will include Iran."

here's the second + 2, a story about israel test-firing a ballistic missile designed to be used against iran...

Israel has conducted a test of a ballistic missile aimed at simulating an Iranian attack on Israel.

The test of the "Blue Sparrow" on Tuesday came after Israel's foreign minister said in Qatar the day before that Iran represented "the extremists in the region" and was "a threat and challenge to the entire region".

Mohammed Rada Ashtiani, the deputy commander of the Iranian army, responded on Tuesday by saying that they would "eliminate it from the global arena" if Israel took any action against them.

Israel's missile test follows confirmation from a senior Israeli defence official that the US has agreed to connect the Jewish state to its ballistic missile early warning system "to protect" the regime against any missile attack.

and here's the third + 2 claiming that a u.s. strike on iran is "nearing," quoting on an anonymous source, "a leading member of america's jewish community"... (and, yes, it's from that notoriously right-wing nut-job news site, newsmax, so when you read it, think sock puppet...)

Contrary to some claims that the Bush administration will allow diplomacy to handle Iran’s nuclear weapons program, a leading member of America’s Jewish community tells Newsmax that a military strike is not only on the table – but likely.

Israel is preparing for heavy casualties,” the source said, suggesting that although Israel will not take part in the strike, it is expecting to be the target of Iranian retribution.

“Look at Dick Cheney’s recent trip through the Middle East as preparation for the U.S. attack,” the source said.

Cheney’s hastily arranged 9-day visit to the region, which began on March 16, included stops in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Turkey, and the Palestinian territories.

Tensions in the region have been rising.

While Israel was conducting the largest homefront military exercises in its history last week, Israel’s National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warned Tehran about expected attacks on the Jewish state.

“An Iranian attack will prompt a severe reaction from Israel, which will destroy the Iranian nation,” he said.

here's my view, for what it's worth... with the global financial markets still experiencing a slo-mo collapse, with the domestic economy swirling ever closer to the drain, with staggering, near-daily revelations about bush administration war crimes and criminal usurpations of executive power, the administration desperately needs more than the temporary distraction of a full-bore attack on obama's "elitism"... it needs something that will provide a MAJOR-LEAGUE distraction, and the ramping up of the rhetoric against iran and the increasing tempo of the war drums are not comforting signs at all...

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