Mr. bassnation
If you look at it, actually, the rhetoric is not getiing "racheted up" to any significant degree, all things considered, by the US. There are even reports of Condi looking for discreet diplomatic openings with "moderates" and pragmatists in the Iranian regime - the (surely?) discredited Euro-diplomacy route, of which even Jack "Rock" Straw is an advocate.
Iran will never ever be a democracy while a revolutionary Islamic "republic" - these two things are mutualy exlusive. The Guardian of Councils choose and vet every election line-up: it either includes wet-sop reformers, conservatives and hardline conservatives or, as in the latest election sham, conservatives, conservative hardliners, and super-conservative hardliners. Additionally, the whole thing is a gigantic fraud anyway. The President is merely a manager for the CofGs and, ultimately, theocratic dictator-in-chief Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. They always get their guy. Look at the last election: Rafsanjani looked a dead cert, and yet we heard that Khamenei had a preference for Ahmadinejad and, lo!, out of nowhere, Ahmadinejd won.
Just the way it is, you know, in a
revolutionary theocracy. Most Iranians don't want to be ruled by this lot, any more than we would. Hence the rude and healthy protest movements, the popular dissidents (many languising in gaol hell-holes, like Akbar Ganji), the Referendum movement, and so on.
It turns out, though, that even Khamenei thinks he's gone too far this time: he's attempting to take power out of Ahmadinejad's hands, in particular foreign policy responsibilties, and hand them back to "moderates", specifically Rafsanjani. Hang on a second...
this Rafsanjani? The very same!
So, you get the picture. The election would make no difference, apparent reformers like Khatami make no difference, to the fundamentals of the Revolutionary Islamic Republic. Foreign Policy priority No. 1: the defeat and erasure of Israel (how irrational is that? Israel should hardly figure in Iranian policy!). Has been since 1979. Still is. It's a sad surprise that the world should be surprised by Ahmadinejad's clumsy honesty. At least he has a certain integrity, the dangerous loon, schleping around in his sports jacket.
Ahmadinejad didn't "take power": he was just given the highest managerial position.
As for you droid, well, 1., the idea that neocon propaganda gets published in "our" papers every day is laughable and 2. if you want an Israel-Palestine/Gaza thread, then start one. Otherwise, why mention it except to either
draw attention to Iran's support and funding and feeding of Islamic Jihad, al-aqsa brigades, Fatah, Hamas and, in the Bekaa Valley, Hizbollah, or
to implicity or tacitly ally with Ahmadinejad's sentiments?
Notice, in the second photo too, that the US globe has smashed before the Isreal one...why I asked, "friend of yours?" (apart from sheer, blissful provocation...)
Check it out, droid:
the real world