The not-so-mad mind of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
by Victor Davis Hanson
January 20, 2006 -- Chicago Tribune

"Given his apocalyptic rhetoric, we can understand why Ahmadinejad might want an arsenal of nuclear missiles. He'd be able to shake down a constant stream of rich European emissaries, threaten the Arab gulf states to lower oil production, neutralize the influence of the United States in the region--and, of course, destroy Israel."

"Impotent European diplomats will always defer to such an important global figure, "ruling out" force to stop the Iranian nuclear industry as they offer money and trade deals if Tehran will just act sanely."

"Money, oil and threats have brought the Iranian theocrats to the very threshold of a nuclear arsenal. Their uncanny diagnosis of Western malaise has now convinced them that they can carefully fabricate a Holocaust-free reality in which Muslims are the victims and Jews the aggressors deserving of punishment."

Personal Note: Mr. Hanson, always a firm grasp on the finer points of World Events, paints a wilier Ahmadinejad than most would credit the Iranian President. What I'd find most frightening in any "Mad Man" would be the possession of a Rational, Deliberate Mind coupled with a lack of Conscience. Such a man may or may not radiate an unearthly heat. But evil is rarely so obvious.

Perhaps more frightening is the West's patently obvious lack of Vision.