Most geo-political analysts assume, wrongly in my opinion, that the United States would need a major event to trigger a war with Iran.
Right now, war maybe much closer than many realize, even the major players such as Saudi Arabia, the US, and Israel, and there is a lot up in the air with the major recent events such as the Arab Spring turned summer, fall, and perhaps winter in Syria.
A new Palestinian recognized nation-state would be another, and the latest Turkey Earthquake, and Turkey's move into Kurdish dominated Iraq.
Those who believe a major event would be needed to trigger a US involved war with Iran perhaps would consider an event such as Iran would have to; -Come very close to or create a nuclear weapon -Start attaching nukes to short range missiles -Blatantly attack US Troops in Iraq or Afghanistan with massive casualties -Be caught red-handed in the next rocket attack barrage by Hamas or Hezbollah on the Jewish State of Israel.
One recent acquaintance of mine believes that the burden of proof would be necessary first, and that we'd have to prove that Iran was still making nuclear weapons and had a full-scale nuclear weapons and uranium enrichment process for that purpose busily reaching the needed percentages to make a nuclear bomb.
Now then is there a way for the US to prove it? Well, personally I am unconvinced WMD even matters, as we are already at war with Iran and their regime is interfering with Iraq, Afghanistan, NATO operations, and powering up Hezbollah and Hamas.
Their airlines are feeding and flying Qod forces around, they are using trickery to get around sanctions to deliver weapons, we've found cashes of weapons in the theatre in Iraq, Afghanistan, and infiltration into Iraq from several borders, they are interfering with Bahrain where we have one of our fleets, and military bases.
I do not believe WMD is even a box that needs to be checked off.
I also do not believe we need 3000 US troops in Iraq as sitting ducks who will be attacked as a reason to go after Iran.
Iran is ramping up and building Chinese knock-off anti-ship C-802 missiles, and generally preparing for war in the Gulf, or to stop oil shipments, also interfering with Iran's oil production which is barely 2.
6 billion barrels and needs to be 12-13 per year for world supply.
Iran/Venezuela with more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia now wants to stick it to the Western World, and with high oil prices good-luck with jobs in the US, as it is like a tax on our entire economy.
Intelligence, IAEA, and other sources confirm Iran is dead-set on building nukes, and we know they have medium range missiles.
We also know that 75 Iranian advisers used a Chinese guided missile and the Lebanon air traffic control system to hit an Israeli warship during the last Hezbollah/Israel conflict - it's not like they don't have some advanced technology already, and the Straits of Hormuz are a strategic choke point.
Like Saddam, Amadinejad says he has technological capacity to defend itself and offensive weapons to strike the West.
That's enough for me + whatever Bill Gertz would like to add to this.
Indeed, I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.