Reply #1: Gates seems to be pushing the nex-war-itis himself:

[IDemo]

In a question-and-answer session with his audience, Gates was asked whether the U.S. would at some point feel compelled to take military action against Iran for its support of Shiite extremists in Iraq.

Gates said the U.S. has a number of activities under way "to deal particularly with what the Iranians were doing in support of the special groups and others in Iraq." The term "special groups" refers to extremist elements of Shiite militias that U.S. officials say are funded and trained by Iranians.

He said that the Iraqis' recent operations in Basra led to the discovery of substantial caches of Iranian-supplied weapons, and "awakened them (the Iraqis) to the reality of the magnitude of Iranian meddling in Iraq."

"We're being very aggressive in going after the networks in Iraq, and the individuals who are interfering or supplying weapons from Iran," Gates said. "We have a number of other activities under way. We take it very seriously. But at this point our activities are focused pretty exclusively inside Iraq."