Once again, the specter of a Middle Eastern war, launched this time by Israel and/or the United States against Iran, appears at the international table.

On the Israeli side, the genesis is internal political angling and wrangling. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is on the rocks, his career having been wrecked by accusations that he accepted some $150,000 in cash over the years from American businessman Morris Talansky. Not surprisingly, Israeli politicians, including Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, are circling his political corpse and employing threats to attack Iran as electoral rhetoric.

On the American side, it is the desire of both candidates for president, as well as President Bush, to be seen supporting Israel. Second, at least in the eyes of some paranoid liberals, there is the renascent idea that, somehow, the Republican administration in its dying days will dig the United States deeper into Middle Eastern warfare in hopes that voters will choose the war-scarred Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain, over Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who has been opposed to the Iraq war.

The idea of the United States attacking Iran, or agreeing to an Israeli attack on Iran, is foolish and irresponsible to the point of near-insanity.

First, it isn't necessary. The reper- tory of possible diplomatic approaches to Iran's nuclear weapons program is not exhausted. European Union foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana is going to Tehran this week to address the issue. The Bush administration has made no effort to establish dialogue with the Iranians. (It claims it has, but then it states extreme pre-conditions to such talks.)

At the very moment the United States has overreached militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan, it would be a terrible mistake to underestimate Iran's likely response. Forget its missile capacity. Iran has standing armed forces estimated at 513,000, with 350,000 in reserve, which not 20 years ago demonstrated the ability to fight and die for eight years in warfare against Iraq -- combat that claimed an estimated half-million Iranian dead. There is also the presence just across the Persian Gulf from Iran of vulnerable Arab oil states Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, all of which host American bases.

Iran, too, has internal politics and politicians who make stupid statements. Whatever they are saying, this is no time for Israel or the United States to pound the war drums. We need peace, not more war, in the Middle East.