I’m not a political rocket scientist or anything, but did Bush essentially tell Iranians to fend for themselves in his State of the Union Address tonight?

Last year, Bush said this about Iran:

“Today, Iran remains the world’s primary state sponsor of terror — pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve. We are working with European allies to make clear to the Iranian regime that it must give up its uranium enrichment program and any plutonium reprocessing, and end its support for terror. And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you.” (Applause.)</p>

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Tonight, he said:

“Tonight, let me speak directly to the citizens of Iran: America respects you, and we respect your country. We respect your right to choose your own future and win your own freedom. And our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran.” (Applause.) [Emphasis mine]</p>

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My brother in law and I have been talking politics a lot lately, and we both sort of agreed that we wouldn’t be surprised if the US invades Iran soon, though I’m shifting positions a bit. It seems like the political directives have cooled off a bit, despite Iran continuing to be more of a threat than Iraq ever was. My bet is we’ll slowly taper off our activity in Iraq, eventually turning our attentions to Syria. Iran will back down, and out in the sticks Al Qaeda will continue to elude us.