Looking for Signs

The daily rhetoric from Iran.

Iran will hit Tel Aviv, US shipping in the Gulf and American interests around the world if it is attacked over its disputed nuclear activities, an aide to Iran's Supreme Leader was quoted as saying yesterday. "The first bullet fired by America at Iran will be followed by Iran burning down its vital interests around the globe," the students news agency ISNA quoted Ali Shirazi as saying in a speech to Revolutionary Guards.

The response by the US.

The US announced new sanctions last night over Iran's nuclear energy programme, naming four individuals and four entities for their ties to Tehran's nuclear and missile programmes...

Meanwhile, Washington shrugged off Iran's threat to "set fire" to Israel and the US navy in the Gulf as its first response to any American attack on the Islamic republic.

"Comments like that are not out of the norm and not unusual," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said, pointing out that the US wanted to resolve the nuclear issue diplomatically.

While this is the right response by the US, all of this is nothing more than a bunch of noise. We don't care how loud Iran gets, how defensive Israel gets, or what the US does because none of the threats through the media means anything. We aren't going to get concerned until we see China making a bunch of noise, because when that happens, it means something is about to happen.