Who are we supposed to believe in this scenario? What if the Iranians are simply trolling us? Via the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The intelligence that caused the White House to escalate its warnings about a threat from Iran came from photographs of missiles on small boats in the Persian Gulf that were put on board by Iranian paramilitary forces, three American officials said.

Overhead imagery showed fully assembled missiles, stoking fears that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps would fire them at United States naval ships. Additional pieces of intelligence picked up threats against commercial shipping and potential attacks by Arab militias with Iran ties on American troops in Iraq.

I believe that three American officials told Times reporters they have these pictures, but that's as far as I'm willing to go for now.

Bolton and Pompeo believe these pictures show the Iranians are planning to attack U.S. forces. Or are they pretending to believe that? Are these pictures really credible? Do they even exist, or did they show Trump a couple of photoshopped photos?

Marco Rubio thinks it's real (yeah, I know). “I’ve been here eight years. This is, by far, the single most imminent potential conflict of this significance that I have been around. This is real. This is not a fake thing. It’s not being made up by somebody. This president does not even want to have troops in the Middle East.”

That, at least, is true. Trump is very skeptical of another Middle East war.

Other officials who talked to the Times -- "including Europeans, Iraqis, members of both parties in Congress and some senior officials within the Trump administration — said Iran’s moves might mostly be defensive against what Tehran believes are provocative acts by Washington."

In other words, trolling.

Just remember, dear readers -- it will be our kids and grandkids who fight. Pay attention. Stay in touch with your Congress members.