Recent news reports and analysis on Iran unwittingly may fuel the passions of those who'd like to see a war there, despite the United States' preoccupation with two wars already in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One area of focus is Iran's nuclear aspirations and the threat they are alleged to pose for the United States. Another is the presentation of Iran's government -- especially its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- as meriting regime change. Mr. Ahmadinejad, whose re-election last year was rightly disputed as questionable if not fraudulent, helps to fuel by his own words the portrayal of him as intemperate, dangerously ambitious, anti-American and demagogic.

That said, Iran is still a long way from having a nuclear weapons capability. Mr. Ahmadinejad's announcement last Thursday on the 31st anniversary of the ayatollahs' accession to power that Iran now is capable of enriching uranium to the weapons grade level is spurious and unconfirmed. Iran is able to enrich uranium to 3.5 percent. Mr. Ahmadinejad says that it has decided to seek the level of 20 percent enrichment. This is being done under surveillance, although not control, at its reactor at Natanz by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Nuclear weapons require at least 90 percent enriched uranium.

The characterization that Mr. Ahmadinejad and his government are vile enough to justify regime change -- similar to the portrayal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq used by the Bush administration to justify the war launched in 2003 -- is fanciful. Mr. Ahmadinejad is a poor leader for Iran. At the same time, the active opposition to him found in the Iranian streets, press and business world -- in spite of his government's best, heavy-handed efforts -- is evidence that he is not an effective dictator. Think what Saddam Hussein would have done in Iraq in those circumstances.

A war against Iran is not in America's interests, not with two other wars already stretching the U.S. military. Add to that President Barack Obama's efforts to revive the economy, reduce unemployment and curtail deficits. In sizing up Iran, this is a time for watchful restraint, while keeping the nation's powder dry.

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