I myself am not convinced that we'll be heading into a Fed-Imperial war anytime soon as neither the Feds or the Empire are really ready for one due to their internal problems.
The Federation is currently not stable enough to risk one, because if the hints that Hudson may indeed have been involved with the assasination attempt on former President Halsey it would suddenly be leaderless... something you do not want in the middle of an ongoing war.
The Empire on the other hand first has to get rid of the NMLA before being able to start a war like that. Why? Because the NMLA has proven at least twice already (with the assassinations of Prince Harold Duval as well as the attempt on Hadrian Augustus Duval) that they can quite easily infiltrate the most secure facilities inside the Empire. That would be too much of a security risk during a full-scale war with the Federation.
So no, I think until those two problems have been taken care off this is just a lot of sabre-rattling (though I will admit, since those sabres easily way several megatons in form of their respective capital ships, the rattling is rather loud).
Aleksander Majjam*...but really gets an idea about yet another photoshop to be had*
Must I be worried?