It wouldn't be possible to overcommit them.

Remember the love-fest at the Gates confirmation hearings? After Rummy, Gates was supposed to be the sane one. Oh well. Gates has already drunk deep of That Kool-Aid Which Cannot Be Undrunk. Guardian:

Increased US military activity in the Gulf is aimed at Iran's "very negative" behaviour, the Bush administration said today.

So, Bush's library speech really was all about Iran?

The defence secretary, Robert Gates, told reporters that the decision to deploy a Patriot missile battalion and a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf in conjunction with a "surge" of troops in Iraq was designed to show Iran that the US was not "overcommitted" in Iraq.

So, we can only send 20,000 troops to Iraq, so the Army's crossed off the list, and we go to the Air Force and the Navy. That's not overcommitted? I mean, what next? Wunderwaffens?

It looks a lot like shoving all our chips onto the table, to me--when the other players don't have much in the game at all.

One thing about the Mullahs--they aren't stupid. Not nearly as stupid as our so-called leadership, anyhow. And not nearly as arrogant. And they aren't fucking losers, either.