CPT. Charles:

“somebody MAY want to take a peak at this [besides me…]. It’s slightly off the current thread but it does relate to current knot of problems.”

I guess the concern here is that Ahmadinejad will do something suicidally stupid because he really believes in the 12th Iman.

It’s hard to interpret this. Ahmadinejad might be talking about the 12th Iman to give himself better “street cred” with Iran’s unwash masses versus the ruling mullahs. Likewise the mullahs are talking down the 12th Iman story because they see Ahmadinejad trying to horn-in on their political turf. It’s important to see that the real political power are the unwashed Iranian masses (deeply religious rural peasants). Those are the people making up the mobs of 200,000 fanatics shouting “allah akbar” or “Death to America” whenever a mullah snaps his fingers. Key point here, is the educated people living in Tehran are NOT politically relavant (neither the mullahs or Ahmadinejad give two hoots about what Tehran’s educated people think).

So is Ahmadinejad serious about the 12th Iman? Who can say? Prior to WW-II, people thought Hitler merely used antisemitism as a cynical political device to appeal to Germany’s ignorant masses and wasn’t really serious about genocide. Demagogues can become incredibly dangerous after they start believing they’re the Messiah.