Ahmedinejad ...

Juan Cole:

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There is, in fact, remarkably little substance to the debates now raging in the United States about Ahmadinejad. His quirky personality, penchant for outrageous one-liners, and combative populism are hardly serious concerns for foreign policy. Taking potshots at a bantam cock of a populist like Ahmadinejad is actually a way of expressing another, deeper anxiety: fear of Iran's rising position as a regional power and its challenge to the American and Israeli status quo. The real reason his visit is controversial is that the American right has decided the United States needs to go to war against Iran. Ahmadinejad is therefore being configured as an enemy head of state. [my em]

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And were our "American Principles" still intact ... well, I thought we were all about free speech? That was before 9/11, I know. Look, I give a shit about Little Mahmoud. He's the Islamic Bush anyway, just another idiot who got control of a country. Most of the Iranians on the street feel the same way about him as we do about the Chimp, another national embarrassment. Bush worries me more than he does.

There's no reason for this hubbub aside from firing up the masses for an attack on Iran.

I'll give you something to think about before I split. Do you think, if Iran developed a nuke, they would allow it to get into the hands of terrorists? (We have more to worry about from an already-nuclear Pakistan in that regard.) Don't you think a nuclear attack (suitcase bomb, dirty bomb), were it traced to Iran, would be met with an all-out nuclear response? The Minuteman IIIs and B-52s would be launched within minutes. The Soviets knew it for 60 years and they had just as many missiles pointed at us.

The Iranian mullahs (who actually run the country) and Ahmedinejad don't want to lose their power and position. They certainly don't want to give up the money they're making off the oil. (You don't think everyone over there is waiting in line to get fitted for a bomb belt, do you?) The U.S. would survive an attack, Iran would not. Regardless of their rhetoric, the leaders over there aren't willing to sit at Allah's right hand just yet.