"[T]here was a third possibility that we hadn't even counted upon..."

... with apologies to Arlo Guthrie.

At the end of a very interesting article by William Arkin in the Washington Post, we have this:

My take is that Bush has voted with Petraeus and has decided to tough it out with 130,000-140,000 troops in Iraq through the end of the administration. Fallon lost the battle. The good news is that with those kinds of resources being committed to Iraq, and with the lessons of the war, the likelihood of Bush and Cheney starting an Iran war is virtually zero.

I like "good news" and all, even if somewhat encumbered as this example is, but there is that "third possibility": We don't have to start a war with Iran. We can just bomb them...

(h/t to dday at Digby's Hullabaloo for the WaPo article)