Final Surge? Or Staging For Iran?

Some of the beltway tea-leaf-readers are seeing dark signs. The "surge", they warn, is really just about keeping our foot in Iraq as a stepping stone to going into Iran. The evidence? For starters, there were some stern words for Iran and Syria in the President's speech the other night. Then the very next day, we appear to have attacked what some are claiming was an Iranian consulate in Iraq, and captured several Iranians. Meanwhile, when Secretary Rice was asked whether the current war authorization would extend to going into Iran, she clearly dodged the question, refusing to say no. And then there's the announcement that we're sending a second aircraft carrier group and several Patriot anti-missile batteries into the Persian Gulf. This was casually dropped into the President's speech, as if it were connected to our efforts in Iraq. But how exactly does an aircraft carrier group or an anti-missile battery help in Baghdad or Anbar? No mistake, that move is aimed at Iran. It seems there are still some glassy-eyed neocons impervious to reality who think that escalating the current debacle into a wider regional conflict would be a good thing. Frightening.