American officials have stepped up their rhetoric against Iran. Newsweek reported today that Vice President Dick Cheney considered a plan to allow Israel to conduct missile strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites “in an effort to draw a military response from Iran, which could in turn spark a U.S. offensive against targets in the Islamic Republic.”

Today, on CNN’s Late Edition, former National Security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski warned President Bush against over-hyping the Iranian threat.

If we want the Iranians to give up uranium enrichment, which they have a right to do, and which so far they’re only enriching up to 5%, which is permissible. Then if we want them to give that up, we have to be willing to give them something in return so that they’re not forced to make a unilateral concession even before the negotiations begin. […]

I think the administration, the president and the vice president particularly are trying to hype the atmosphere, and that is reminiscent of what preceded the war in Iraq. When the president flatly asserts they are seeking nuclear weapons, he is overstating the facts. We are suspicious, we have strong suspicions, but we don’t have facts that they are.

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