Are Trailer-bound American Nerds Preventing War with Iran?

Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET

It could be a bumpy, Armageddon-y autumn if Israel goes buck wild on Iran in the coming weeks as some suspect. But maybe the U.S. just talked Israel out of starting a war by giving them three nerds in a trailer as protection? It's a possibility being discussed in the wake of the U.S.'s decision to plop a top-shelf missile warning system and three U.S. technicians in the Israeli desert. Haaretz reports that the high-powered radar, which is about five-times more powerful than Israel's current system, is being taken as a "signal of Washington's opposition to an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear program" by Israeli officials who claim they will now have to obtain explicit U.S. permission for any operation that could endanger the lives of the trailer-bound Americans, which an attack on Iran would clearly do.

But a columnist with the Jerusalem Post says bullshit, this is just the Israeli government making up imaginary U.S. conditions to cover for their own unwillingness to attack Iran.