Fightin' Words

The sabers are rattling and the noise is coming from the most unexpected of places – France:

THE world should "prepare for war" with Iran, the French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, said on Sunday, escalating tensions over the country's nuclear program.

Mr Kouchner said that while "we must negotiate right to the end" with Iran, if Tehran possessed an atomic weapon it would represent "a real danger for the whole world" and the world should "prepare for the worst … which is war".

While United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates has maintained diplomacy is the preferred way to deal with Iran, there continues to be a number of reports that say the United States has drawn up plans for an attack:

Senior American intelligence and defence officials believe that President George W Bush and his inner circle are taking steps to place America on the path to war with Iran, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Pentagon planners have developed a list of up to 2,000 bombing targets in Iran, amid growing fears among serving officers that diplomatic efforts to slow Iran's nuclear weapons programme are doomed to fail.

Pentagon and CIA officers say they believe that the White House has begun a carefully calibrated programme of escalation that could lead to a military showdown with Iran.

Looking at the past few weeks' headlines, it seems that the "carefully calibrated programme of escalation" is well underway. Between today's comments from France, Syria-North Korea nuclear connections and last week's Israeli airstrike in Syria, the region has continued to contribute to a surge in international confrontations.

While the United States hasn't been completely straightforward on its intent to attack, Iranian news sources have made the country's intentions a little less ambiguous:

Six hundred Iranian Shihab-3 missiles are pointed at targets throughout Israel, and will be launched if either Iran or Syria are attacked, an Iranian website affiliated with the regime reported on Monday.

"Iran will shoot at Israel 600 missiles if it is attacked," the Iranian news website, Assar Iran, reported. "600 missiles will only be the first reaction."

And if the missiles weren't enough to send a message to the West, Iran banned Google.

In the (hopefully) unwanted event that the French go to war with the United States, will they get their fries back?