NATIONAL DEFENSE STUNNER - AT 8:03 A.M. ET:  A wake-up call to those who haven't taken the Iranian threat seriously.  Apparently, the Pentagon is taking it very seriously:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will test its core missile defenses for the first time in January against a simulated long-range Iranian attack, a top Pentagon official said on Monday, amid tensions with Tehran.

That's an Iranian attack on the United States.  Everybody awake?

Speaking at the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington, Army Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly, the head of the Missile Defense Agency, said the roughly $150 million test was a departure from the more standard scenario of a North Korean attack.

That's serious money for a test.  It' a far cry from that disgraceful 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, assuring us that Iran had stopped developing nuclear weapons in 2003. 

It also would be more difficult testing the U.S. Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system against a missile that would be faster and more direct as it races toward the United States than a simulated strike from North Korea.

Of course, what we must also worry about is a shorter-range missile launched from a freighter a few hundred miles off Baltimore.

"Previously, we have been testing the GMD system against a North Korean-type scenario," O'Reilly said.

"This next test ... is more of a head-on shot like you would use defending against an Iranian shot into the United States. So that's the first time that we're now testing in a different scenario."

The fact that Iran was mentioned by name is diplomatically significant.  A recent series of statements by high American officials, including secretaries Clinton and Gates, have been increasingly, and appropriately, threatening toward Iran.

December 15,  2009