Iran and Armageddon

Charles Krauthammer / Syndicated columnist

WASHINGTON - Lest you get carried away with today's good news from
Iraq, consider what's happening next door in Iran. The wild
pronouncements of the new Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have
gotten sporadic press ever since he called for Israel to be wiped off
the map. He subsequently amended himself to say that Israel should
simply be extirpated from the Middle East map and moved to some German
or Austrian province. Perhaps near the site of an old extermination
camp?

Except that there were no such camps, indeed no Holocaust at all, says
Ahmadinejad. Nothing but "myth," a "legend" that was
"fabricated ...
under the name 'Massacre of the Jews.' "

This brought the usual reaction from European and American officials,
who, with Churchillian rage and power, called these statements
unacceptable. That something serious may accrue to Iran for this 
- say, expulsion from the U.N. for violating its most basic principle 
by advocating the outright eradication of a member state - is, of course,
out of the question.

[...]

Everyone knows where Iran's nuclear weapons will be aimed. Everyone
knows they will be put on Shahab rockets that have been modified so
they can now reach Israel. And everyone knows that if the button is
pushed, it will be the end of Israel.

But it gets worse. The president of a country about to go nuclear 
is a confirmed believer in the coming apocalypse. Like Judaism and
Christianity, Shiite Islam has its own version of the messianic return
u the reappearance of the Twelfth Imam. The more devout believers in
Iran pray at the Jamkaran Mosque that houses a well from which, some
believe, he will emerge.

When Ahmadinejad unexpectedly won the presidential elections, he
immediately gave $17 million of government funds to the shrine. Last
month, Ahmadinejad said publicly that the main mission of the Islamic
Revolution is to pave the way for the reappearance of the Twelfth
Imam.

And as in some versions of fundamentalist Christianity, the second
coming will be accompanied by the usual trials and tribulations, 
death and destruction. Iranian journalist Hossein Bastani reported
Ahmadinejad saying in official meetings that the hidden imam will
reappear in two years.

[...]

Copyright - The Seattle Times Company

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Cheers, Steve..

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