A British officer's reaction to London being bombed by zeppelins in WWI, "It's no business to happen here". The German bombs were characterized as barbarous even though the bombs dropped by the French and Spanish on Moroccan villages before the war were not characterized as such.

we make a minor move, they make a minor move, we make a more sizable move, then WHAM a major 9-11 style attack on the US Homeland(tm) requiring all out war (and blind patriotism, and how-dare-you-question-the-source-of-the-attack, and more suppression of dissent, and...).

Gosh, who'd a thunk it?

Again, the bigger question is "What will Russia and China do?"

We do it, they do it, Israel does it... The reality is that Iran doesn't want to go there, we don't want to go there, the people of Israel don't want to go there. Our leaders just all enjoy the game of who has the biggest virtual penis.

Of everyone involved I don't think there is any real argument about who has the most military power.