[MARTIAL MONK]

This is saber rattling. It has a purpose in and of itself. It is designed to influence the current political balance and prevent trends extant from congealing into war. Since it defines causus belli clearly, it itcreases the liklihood of war but it also gives all parties an opportunity to avoid use of force. It provides focus.

[Iris7]

Indeed it is.

Saber rattling is meaningless without the saber, shall we say. To work there has to be a real threat of war.

As far as Israel and Sharon are concerned I find my reaction to Sharon's gambit curiosity about the ways and means he intends to employ to carry out his threat if and perhaps when he must. Logistics particularly.

Of course Sharon is talking about using nuclear weapons because the Iranian installations are many, large, and reasonably well defended.

Martial Monk, eh? Always had a weak spot for the Templars and Hospitalers myself. By the way, and of course, those fellows were overwhelmingly French.