Will there be war with Iran?(Inside Track)

Concerns that the Bush administration is planning a war with Iran date back almost two years, but recent developments seem to suggest that hostilities may be imminent. Among the signs pointing to a wider war in the Middle East involving Iran was the U.S. raid on the Iranian consulate in Irbil and the capture of five Iranian officials.

The raid came as the president, in his January 10 address to the nation, warned that U.S. forces would disrupt Iranian and Syrian aid to insurgents in Iraq. "Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops" the president charged, promising: "We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."

Moreover, the president indicated in his speech that another aircraft-carrier battle group would be joining the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower battle group already in the Gulf region and that a Patriot missile battalion would be dispatched to the Middle East. The carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, had been scheduled to deploy to the Pacific, but according to a January 3 Reuters report, would be sent to the Gulf region instead "as a warning to Syria and ...