In 1953, morons at the CIA initiated a coup and disposed of the DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED LEADER of Iran, mossadegh. They said he was a communist…but he wasn’t. He was about as communist as Obama is..but you know how morons do.

They invent lies, they create propaganda, they demonize…and they kill people like MLK, JFK, and dispose of democratically elected leaders to stic it to the “commies”

Well, the morons decided to give all the power to a king, and this king, outlawed all but his political party in 75. He tortured many, he executed many, but he wasn’t that bad of a leader…but bad enough so taht bigger RIGHT WING MORONS, would use this against him.

These morons, led by RIGHT WING MORON Khomeni, then deposed of this government by promising free gas, and free water to all iranians at at ime when ALL iranians were fed up with the Shah.

Then khomeni turns out to be even further to the right than the Shah.

And today…..instead of helping groups inside of Iran take their country back, american RIGHT WING MORONS want to bomb iran.

This is the time to start a coup in iran..now is the time to start assassinating certain people in Iran…

but you can’t get the oil that way…oh no..blackwater needs money..Lockheed needs a WAR.

So go tell your lies…fight your wars morons. If the shit hits the fan, i’ll be in south america..

And here is another history lesson for the morons..concerning israel.

Well, first of all, Abraham, father of jews and arabs…was born in modern day IRAQ.

He moved west with his tribe…and then “god” said

My angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites; and I will wipe them out. (Exodus 23:23 NAB)

AND THE JEWS HAVE BEEN KILLING OVER LAND EVER SINCE…if any of you morons had a brain, you would be able to read the old testament, and figure out, that Abraham killed MILLIONS of people, over land which he claims taht “god promised” him.

KOO KOO, FOR COCOA PUFFS. WAKE UP MORONS. RIGHT WING MUSLIMS FANATICS DON’TA TTACK US CUZ WE’RE “FREE”. THEY ATTACK US BECAUSE WE GIVE FREE GUNS AND PLANES TO THE PEOPLE WHO STEAL THEIR LAND, AND SHOOT AT THEIR CHILDREN, AND ADMIT TO IT….WITHOUT ANY CONSEQUENCES.

As to the gist of your question: whether there could be other “non-religious” reasons for widening this famous boulevard whose name escapes me, I can only tell you what I can tell you.

At the time it was done there was widespread public press on the project and while I’m going out on a limb just a little here, I’m almost positive that Ahmadinejad made multiple proclamations as to it’s Raison d’être. In other words, there was no attempt made to hide it as some kind of overblown “fixing the potholes” project.

That then brings up the question: what if Ahmadinejad said those things but, the sly fox that he is, actually had other, more nefarious things in mind.

Well I’d give two answers to that. The first and probably best is that as you cogently point out, “standard military doctrine” would seem to dictate something that would hinder, not help, the supposed convergence of tanks into your capital.

There’s also always something to be learned by any one of Israel’s last 2 or 3 wars. And perhaps the predominant lesson there — a lesson that has, in fell swoop “converted” the entire political Left in Israel to a far more militaristic posture — is the “new era” in warfare involving missiles. While the big ones can be defended against, the far more numerous smaller ones cannot — and certainly cannot once you throw in the cost of even attempting to do so). The point of all this being that we’ll be seeing much more of missile exchanges in non-contiguous countries than ever before. As usual the Germans pioneered this exact tactic with the V2.

The 2nd reason I would give in answer to your question which does not have to do with war is that the boulevard widening was only one of Ahmadinejad’s famous projects to hasten the Mahdi’s arrival (although perhaps the best known).

But the fact is that there have been a plethora of “public works” projects all with the loudly stated goal (and I would imagine pomp and circumstance) to coax, or at least facilitate, the hidden Mahdi out of his occultation. I have even heard talk of some sort of light rail line in order to ease the passage of the believers to Qom. Logistically it wouldn’t be that difficult: Tehran to Qom is approximately 100 miles and crosses the relatively flat width of a valley.

But Qom’s traditional elders are, to put it mildly, upset at Ahmadinejad’s building in and around the Jamkaran Well. And to add insult to injury, they don’t take kindly to a leader who straightforwardly claims he is guided by the hidden Imam himself(!)

So to spell it out: the boulevard widening project was but one of many such projects all conducted with the same publicly stated goal. You must remember that Ahmadinejad is a person who (purportedly) wrote down the names of the newly elected Majlis (Parliament) on separate pieces of paper and then dropped them into the Jamkaran Well. Presumably he felt this would allow the hidden Imam to stay abreast of important political events. I do not believe he did this as a “symbolic act” or for any reason other than his actual belief that he was in fact communicating with the hidden 12th Imam. I also do not think that Ahmadinejad would disagree. Therein lies the danger.

“a “real-world” project explicitly meant to hasten the arrival of the hidden Imam (and corresponding end-of-world) is the well documented and ill received fact of his spending untold millions of dollars to tear down miles and miles of stores on either side of the main boulevard (name anyone?) leading into Tehran to significantly widen it in order that the hidden Imam will have no trouble (presumably) “finding” Tehran or getting stuck in some such way in said boulevards narrower incarnation.”

Fair enough, but I’m curious: is there perhaps some military reason for doing this? Of course the first reaction is, “No, if you anticipate invasion, you add obstacles, you don’t remove them.” And yet, I have to ask whether there isn’t some other equally cogent military reason for widening the boulevards – perhaps a different kind of defense? – since I have so often been wrong about such presumptions. Anyone got a guess? If not, not, but I’m curious.

The deathwish Western “elites” have for their own culture creeps me out.

Vice versa, if I were a follower of the hidden 12th Imam, I would probably keep my beliefs relatively quiet– if for no other reason than to avoid the belittlement that must accompany the holding of such views by more mainstream countrymen. When your cohorts believe literally (not figuratively) that the 12th Imam – the true Mahdi – is hiding in a specific hole in the ground known as the “Jamkaran Well” in the city of Isfahan (near Qom, or Q’um), you open yourself up to the embarrassment of your, mainstream Muslim, Westernized, or at least modernized neighbors. That this is true is “unremarkable” as doctors would say since it happens, and has happened, throughout recorded history.

If Yazdi’s coterie didn’t control nuclear weapons, I would pay them no heed. But alas, as you rather passionately point out (and passion is demanded when discussing this subject!), they view themselves as realistically able to hasten the Mahdi’s return. And as I tried to point out in the last paragraph of my last post, no particular “evil intentions” need be ascribed to these men. They are only doing what they believe in their heart of hearts. The problem that exists for the rest of us, including the millions of Iranians who will in fact be killed by Israel’s retaliatory vengeance after they are struck (which no student of history can rightfully deny them) is that Yazdi’s coterie are in fact very close to achieving their goal.

I am touched by your balanced and thoughtful post. However there needs to be one correction, Ahmadinejad is not the main figure. I compare him to a child of the regime with a big mouth who reveals the true motivation of the mullahs. The true players are the mullahs behind the scene who had him elected as the President, also the same people who had Khamenei promoted to an Ayatollah overnight to have him become the Supreme leader after Khomeini’s death. Its a secretive society of the Mahdi believers,their members unknown to the public but well known within the Guards who share the same sentiment.

BBC: Iran sought deal over nuclear program
Iran in 2005 approached the West with an offer: ‘We stop killing you in Iraq, stop undermining the political process there, you allow us to carry on with our nuclear program,” British diplomat John Sawers told the BBC in an interview that aired Saturday. Tehran began shopping its offer around Europe after the U.S. accused Iran of aiding the Iraqi insurgency.

Where are those who said Iran was not meddling in Iraq.IDIOTS

While it’s true that “rational” arguments can be made for the ruling Mullahs’ desire for Nuclear weapons, the fact is that it’s the “bringing about the end of world” (eschatological) motivations that have always distorted the otherwise cogent arguments that have been made here and elsewhere by people who (I believe) aren’t fully acquainted with the degree of Ahmadinejad’s feelings on this matter. In short, if it weren’t for the strongly eschatological element that exists in a very well documented way in this particular case, then yes, by all means, we should in fact treat Iran as we did, say the USSR (e.g. M.A.D.)

And to the person who made the comment about there being “end of times” people in Christianity as well, you are of course absolutely correct (even Jews flirt with this alluring subject — see for example the very serious attempts to breed a “Para Adoma” (a Red Cow free from imperfections) that must exist if any new Temple is to be consecrated). The only difference however is that there is no eschatologically–obsessed dictator who has at his disposal an, army, nuclear device, and perhaps hundreds of sleeper-cells all primed and ready for action. I would also add that the 12th Imam sect is viewed by the majority of Iran’s Muslims in the same barely bemused way that Hitler was looked at by educated Germans of his day – which is to say, no one took him seriously.

As the author implies in his comment, Iran is not only a highly diverse country (Persians are but one of many religious groups), Iran is also surprisingly “Westernized” albeit in a quasi-underground fashion. Thus, again, while *rational* arguments would no doubt appeal and resonate with most Iranians, the singular problem we have here, now, at this time is that it’s not those rational Iranians that are at the helm in Iran.

One, perhaps not convincing to all who read this, concrete example of the extent to which Ahmadinejad has already enacted a “real-world” project explicitly meant to hasten the arrival of the hidden Imam (and corresponding end-of-world) is the well documented and ill received fact of his spending untold millions of dollars to tear down miles and miles of stores on either side of the main boulevard (name anyone?) leading into Tehran to significantly widen it in order that the hidden Imam will have no trouble (presumably) “finding” Tehran or getting stuck in some such way in said boulevards narrower incarnation. There are other projects having to do with the holy well where the 12th Imam is presumably hiding.

But taking pot-shots lessens the very real fear that Ahmadinejad should in fact bring forth. There is very real damage that eschatologically–obsessed people have, in many documented cases throughout the ages (a famous one in upstate New York in the 1800’s comes to mind) bring upon themselves and their followers. Before the advent of 20th century technology one could sympathize and leave it at that. Now however they can take the rest of us down with them as they take their very real-world steps to “hasten” the end of days no matter what their religion.

And that is the one and only reason I personally happen to be obsessed with Iran at the moment. Otherwise I’d think of them more along the lines of, say, Pakistan: not friendly to the Israel or the USA per se, but also, like North Korea, not lead by an eschatologically–obsessed dictator.

The point being this: imagine yourself to be this particular “end of timer” who has the power of nuclear weapons at your disposal, who deeply believes in your heart of hearts that you *can* in fact hasten the glorious end time for the world where there will be no more starvation, where G-d’s judgment will reign in a new and miraculous way – would you *not* in fact do everything in your power to help bring this about – assuming your religion says that man *does* possess the ability to hasten this glorious end along? Remember, the millions of deaths you may have caused just a moment ago will now mean nothing as we are all now in the bliss time… the rapture. I know *I* would. By definition any man acts on what he believes strongly in his heart of hearts. How could you live with yourself to deny this glorious time to the ailing peoples of the world? Why would you?

“You’re being a stupid, clueless assh*le.”

Better bone up on your Dale Carnegie, Fudd. It wasn’t *my* post that got deleted from Roger’s blog bwahahahaha.