Angels and Demons

That plot “shows that some Iranian officials — probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime,” Clapper said in the testimony, which was submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee in advance of a threat assessment hearing Tuesday. “We are also concerned about Iranian plotting against U.S. or allied interests overseas.”

-WaPo

Leaving aside the fact that "that plot" was a wild American invention that had an Iranian-American used car dealer hiring a gang of Mexican drug dealers to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador, a plot that makes Dan Brown blowing up the Vatican with antimatter seem like the pinnacle of narrative realism and political verisimilitude, what I like about the latest Iranian hijinks is that everyone is so forthright about the fact that any increase in Iranian bellicosity--ahem, "real or percieved"--is the direct result of American sword-rattling. There's not even a stutter in the direction of circumlocution. It's all straight up: "Senator, we are concerned that the Iranians may respond if we go to war with them." It may necessitate a war!