Hi waitress, I’ll take a well-done hamburger with a side order of Xanax, please. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has out-crazied Ahmadinejad, who only wrote letters to the Hidden Imam in the Jamkaran well and said he was guided by God in preparing the way for the Imam’s intervention. According to a senior cleric, Khamenei is telling his inner circle that he has actually met the Hidden Imam and that he promised to appear during Khamenei’s tenure as Supreme Leader. Yikes.
I can only think of three reasons that Khamenei would tell his advisors this:
1) He’s lying, and he’s just attempting to sooth the fears of his closest advisors by trying to convince them that divine intervention is on the way.
2) He’s lying and he’s trying to instill confidence in his inner circle ahead of a major war that will usher in the appearance of the Hidden Imam who will bring them victory.
3) He actually believes he met the Hidden Imam, perhaps under the influence of the opium he is widely rumored to being treated with. Khamenei is greatly emboldened and believes war is imminent with an inevitable Shiite Islamic victory.
Two out of the three scenarios involve a belief that war is imminent—a war that, despite all the odds, the Iranians can’t lose because God is going to save the day. And that’s how they differ from the Soviets—the Soviets didn’t even believe in God. The Iranian regime believes in God and is certain that this messianic figure is going to win the final grand war over Islam’s enemies during the End Times, in which we are living.
Another thing to notice is that if this cleric is right, Khamenei is only saying this in private. That’s another sign that he’s afraid of causing a backlash among the people and clerics who have previously criticized Ahmadinejad for such talk.
The question is how Ahmadinejad and Khamenei believe this war is going to begin. Could it be that they believe an Israeli strike on their nuclear facilities is a part of prophecy unfolding?
I’ve got to get out of this Middle East analysis business. 24-year-olds shouldn’t have to worry about bat crazy dictators causing their hair to thin.
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