] The Iran crisis is more immediate in the eyes of the Bush
] administration, in part because Iran is among the
] president's "Axis of Evil." Israel, which has long
] regarded Iran as a more dire threat than Iraq, is making
] thinly veiled threats of a unilateral pre-emptive attack,
] like its 1981 airstrike against Iraq's Osirak nuclear
] reactor. "If the state decides that a military solution
] is required, then the military has to provide a
] solution," said Israel's new Air Force chief of staff,
] Maj. Gen. Elyezer Shkedy, in a newspaper interview last
] week. "For obvious reasons," he added, "we aren't going
] to speak of specifics." U.S. defense experts doubt that
] Israel can pull it off. Iran's facilities (which it
] insists are for peaceful purposes) are at the far edge of
] combat range for Israel's aircraft; They're also widely
] dispersed and, in many cases, deep underground.