Nothing could better symbolize Iran s 30-year-old regime at the limit of its contradictions. A supreme leader imagined as the Prophet s representative on earth Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini s central revolutionary idea now heads a militarized coterie bent, in the name of money and power, on the bludgeoning of the Iranian people. A false theocracy confronts a society that has seen through it.

During the past thirty years, Iran has been a sworn enemy of the United States. During the past five years, Iran has become far more powerful a player than before -- this in a region of critical strategic importance. During the past five years, Iran has sought aggressively to acquire more arms, now including nuclear arms. During the past year (as well as before) Iran oppressed its own dissenters -- many to the point of persecution. Finally, Ahmadinejad has himself, ironically, repeatedly and in no uncertain terms, been a Holocaust denier and Jew-hater. To gild this lily he has spoken openly and frequently of obliterating the state of Israel, of "wiping it off the map."