Is Iran trying to restart the Cold War?

And even more to the point: is the US excited about that? The rhetoric that is being flung back and forth between these two harkens back to the days of Miami Vice and Hypercolor t-shirts. The pissing match seems to be reaching an all new high with this recent announcement that Iran has successfully tested a new underwater missile capable of destroying large warships and submarines.

The only purpose for making such and announcement was to tick off the US. I suspect that this may have several consequences:

1. The Iranians may actually think this threat will make the US re-think any half-baked ideas about "regime-changing" Iran.
2. Iran will continue to press the Israelis, possibly into a pre-emptive strike (though unlikely, that sort of move would be supported by the neocons). Lit match, meet dry hay.
3. The US will have the wonderful excuse to kick start a good ol' traditional arms race again. As we all know, nothing helps a flailing economy faster than a massive military R&D/buildup. The Bush campaign would like nothing more that to make conventional weapons on a scale only matched by Reagan in a non-war era. It would provide thousands of jobs in areas that may not be ripe for tech-revolution, and would put gov't contracts in the hands of friend' of the administration. A win-win as far as they are concerned.

The powder-keg needs to be watched closely. As Canada attests to being a "middle-power" that can effect change in non-military situations just like these, you would think we'd be champing at the bit to get involved. Well? Are we?

CNN.com - Iran: High-speed underwater?Missile test-fired - Apr 2, 2006