The frightening truth of why Iran wants a bomb
The Sunday Telegraph (UK) ^ | April 16, 2006 | By Amir Taheri

The writer does not comprehend at all what is taking place or what the targets of Iran’s nukes are and the Logic of it. Iran two days ago called Al Queda to pack up and leave. I am sure Mookie Sadr has been told to keep clear of Baghdad and whatever targets they have they probably would blow all of Basra and the oil fields as well because these muslims have no read need for oil. So that makes a two nuke minimum after the bombs blow command and control for the US and Britton are gone all electronics are fried from the em pulse Al Queda comes over the hill with suidcide bombers in trucks to all remaining forces and al sadr with his million member militia attack – there are no radios and in the worst case scenario these forces are only able to kill 30% of our troops on the ground. All the heads of government are killed and al Sadr is now head of Iraq by default. We do not have enough planes to defend Iraq and attack Iran in the area our main airfield in Baghdad would be destroyed. For the sake of our soldiers and the people of Iraq we have to respond NOW. I can’t tell you how this has gripped my spirit over the last few days

We can also pray from the bombs not to work. We should pray for that.

Yesterday Iran told Al Qaeda and Abu Musab Zarqawi to get out of Iraq like a bat out of hell.

They are not going to nuke Israel, they are going to nuke the US ARMY in Iraq and probably take out our command and control structure in Baghdad as well as Iraq’s entire elected government as well.

This would be a message to all Islamic nations not to embrace democracy.

And would make the US loose face in the Arab world

The president of Iran has said he is willing to risk everything -- He is trying to force the appearance of the 12^th Imam

Rush stated yesterday Lheard this aafter I posted this. The president has stated that he is to be the leader of Iran and Iraq and make a stand against the entire west.

how can he be the leader orf Iraq?

He thinks he is going to be the antichrist

he will never be voted in in Iraq but if he takes out all the leadership and hurst the US so bad that bush can no longer hold our military in the region -- because of public opinion and thecongress and senate . . .

when we vaporized nagasaki or hiroshima did it wipe out japan. Japan is small baghdad could be vaporized not by a misle but by a truck with the nuke in it -- it seems likely that it would be hand delivered -- the ultimate suicide bombing if you will

US PUblic opinion and world public opinion would never allow us to nuke and kll millions of civilians -- all our attack plans are with conventional weapons destroying baghdad would make the contry leaderless and throw it into utter chaos. AND tha would leave mookey Sadr incharge who is Iran's puppet

Posted on 04/15/2006 6:36:40 PM PDT

Last Monday, just before he announced that Iran had gatecrashed "the nuclear club", President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disappeared for several hours. He was having a khalvat (tête-à-tête) with the Hidden Imam, the 12th and last of the imams of Shiism who went into "grand occultation" in 941.

According to Shia lore, the Imam is a messianic figure who, although in hiding, remains the true Sovereign of the World. In every generation, the Imam chooses 36 men, (and, for obvious reasons, no women) naming them the owtad or "nails", whose presence, hammered into mankind's existence, prevents the universe from "falling off". Although the "nails" are not known to common mortals, it is, at times, possible to identify one thanks to his deeds. It is on that basis that some of Ahmad-inejad's more passionate admirers insist that he is a "nail", a claim he has not discouraged. For example, he has claimed that last September, as he addressed the United Nations' General Assembly in New York, the "Hidden Imam drenched the place in a sweet light".

Last year, it was after another khalvat that Ahmadinejad announced his intention to stand for president. Now, he boasts that the Imam gave him the presidency for a single task: provoking a "clash of civilisations" in which the Muslim world, led by Iran, takes on the "infidel" West, led by the United States, and defeats it in a slow but prolonged contest that, in military jargon, sounds like a low intensity, asymmetrical war.

In Ahmadinejad's analysis, the rising Islamic "superpower" has decisive advantages over the infidel. Islam has four times as many young men of fighting age as the West, with its ageing populations. Hundreds of millions of Muslim "ghazis" (holy raiders) are keen to become martyrs while the infidel youths, loving life and fearing death, hate to fight. Islam also has four-fifths of the world's oil reserves, and so controls the lifeblood of the infidel. More importantly, the US, the only infidel power still capable of fighting, is hated by most other nations.

According to this analysis, spelled out in commentaries by Ahmadinejad's strategic guru, Hassan Abassi, known as the "Dr Kissinger of Islam", President George W Bush is an aberration, an exception to a rule under which all American presidents since Truman, when faced with serious setbacks abroad, have "run away". Iran's current strategy, therefore, is to wait Bush out. And that, by "divine coincidence", corresponds to the time Iran needs to develop its nuclear arsenal, thus matching the only advantage that the infidel enjoys.

Moments after Ahmadinejad announced "the atomic miracle", the head of the Iranian nuclear project, Ghulamreza Aghazadeh, unveiled plans for manufacturing 54,000 centrifuges, to enrich enough uranium for hundreds of nuclear warheads. "We are going into mass production," he boasted.

The Iranian plan is simple: playing the diplomatic game for another two years until Bush becomes a "lame-duck", unable to take military action against the mullahs, while continuing to develop nuclear weapons.

Thus do not be surprised if, by the end of the 12 days still left of the United Nations' Security Council "deadline", Ahmadinejad announces a "temporary suspension" of uranium enrichment as a "confidence building measure". Also, don't be surprised if some time in June he agrees to ask the Majlis (the Islamic parliament) to consider signing the additional protocols of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Such manoeuvres would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director, Muhammad El-Baradei, and Britain's Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, to congratulate Iran for its "positive gestures" and denounce talk of sanctions, let alone military action. The confidence building measures would never amount to anything, but their announcement would be enough to prevent the G8 summit, hosted by Russia in July, from moving against Iran.

While waiting Bush out, the Islamic Republic is intent on doing all it can to consolidate its gains in the region. Regime changes in Kabul and Baghdad have altered the status quo in the Middle East. While Bush is determined to create a Middle East that is democratic and pro-Western, Ahmadinejad is equally determined that the region should remain Islamic but pro-Iranian. Iran is now the strongest presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, after the US. It has turned Syria and Lebanon into its outer defences, which means that, for the first time since the 7th century, Iran is militarily present on the coast of the Mediterranean. In a massive political jamboree in Teheran last week, Ahmadinejad also assumed control of the "Jerusalem Cause", which includes annihilating Israel "in one storm", while launching a take-over bid for the cash-starved Hamas government in the West Bank and Gaza.

Ahmadinejad has also reactivated Iran's network of Shia organisations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Yemen, while resuming contact with Sunni fundamentalist groups in Turkey, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. From childhood, Shia boys are told to cultivate two qualities. The first is entezar, the capacity patiently to wait for the Imam to return. The second is taajil, the actions needed to hasten the return. For the Imam's return will coincide with an apocalyptic battle between the forces of evil and righteousness, with evil ultimately routed. (Read Evil as the EU US and Isreal – Or Christians Jews and the bible) If the infidel loses its nuclear advantage, it could be worn down in a long, low-intensity war at the end of which surrender to Islam would appear the least bad of options. And that could be a signal for the Imam to reappear.

At the same time, not to forget the task of hastening the Mahdi's second coming, Ahamdinejad will pursue his provocations. On Monday, he was as candid as ever: "To those who are angry with us, we have one thing to say: be angry until you die of anger!"

His adviser, Hassan Abassi, is rather more eloquent. "The Americans are impatient," he says, "at the first sight of a setback, they run away. We, however, know how to be patient. We have been weaving carpets for thousands of years."

• Amir Taheri is a former Executive Editor of Kayhan, Iran's largest daily newspaper, but now lives in Europe

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