Planning for war on Iran continues?

A friend of a friend just pointed out the following set of circumstances:

1. The authorization for use of force passed after 9/11 allows the President to take military action against 'terrorists'.

2. The Bush administration has announced its intention to declare the Iranian revolutionary guard a terrorist organization.

The establishment media has reported the designation as a tactical move to allow financial sanctions to be taken against the guard. This spin makes no sense as all Iranian assets have been subject to US sanctions since the Carter administration.

Using the designation to claim that the administration has a legal basis for commiting an act of war appears to me to be a much more likely explanation. If so we might well see the end of US superpower status before the next Presidential inaugural.

The military question is whether a supercarrier is still a viable military platform in the age of advanced surface to ship missiles. Specifically do the Iranians have armour piercing depleted uranium tips on their Chinese designed weapons? Even if the Iranians fail to sink a capital ship they have the power to close the Straits of Hormuz and to create an uprising in Iraq.

The political question is whether the Congress will wake from its slumber and decide that finaly it has had enough.