Our preference

Ominous.

"I actually am very hopeful that we don't get into a position where we have to get into a conflict," Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Israel's Channel Ten television when asked if he might recommend that U.S. forces strike Iranian nuclear facilities preemptively.

All the signs and portents are there for a massive U.S. strike against Iran in the next few months, say, October.

UPDATE: And, like clockwork, the New York Times plays its accustomed role.