Not So Quiet on the Third Front

Adm. Mike Mullen, predicting neither war nor peace in Iran. (By Luis Alvarez -- Associated Press)

In front of the cameras yesterday, Mullen tried to warn about the military problems such an attack would set off. "This is a very unstable part of the world," the chairman said, "and I don't need it to be more unstable." With troops already stretched thin in Iraq and Afghanistan, he acknowledged that "opening up a third front right now would be extremely stressful" on the U.S. military. The chief warrior therefore appealed for "other elements of national power to change Iranian behavior, including diplomatic, financial and international pressure."

But Mullen, informed by his discussions with Israeli military officials, did not offer much reassurance that an Israeli strike could be avoided. Iran, he said, is "still on a path to get to nuclear weapons, and I think that's something that needs to be deterred."

Might Iran have enough nuclear fuel to build a bomb by the year's end?

"I don't want to address that," the chairman said.

Is Israel operating on a shorter time frame than the United States?

Mullen said past discussions "indicated that they were."

Is there a danger that all the bluffing could cause an actual war?

"It is high stakes, there's no question, in this part of the world, and I guess I'd just leave it at that."