[John Kilduff]

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I happen to believe that Ahmadinejad believes what he states publicly. For the sake of argument, though, let's say he doesn't believe much of it and it is instead designed to appeal to the masses.

What would that say about the masses?

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I assume they are ignorant, just like the masses of Americans are ignorant. In both situations our governments are pandering to remain in control. At the same time I am not so sure that the masses in Iran really agree with the direction of the Imans, they might be more worldly than you and I assume. My friend Nedda spent 6 months in Iran filming a documentary about the commonality between Americans and Iranians, although i never saw it I was told its eye opening. Nedda has been living in the states since she was 5 or so and was raised in a Catholic Persian household. She was under surveillance while in Iran, she almost landed in jail for her filming yet she still believes the Iranian people are misunderstood. Personally I am not sure I believe her POV, but its compelling evidence to suggest that the masses aren't as ignorant as we assume so i try to approach it with an open mind.

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A good slice of the Iranian population is young, educated, and dislikes the tyranny of the mullahs. When they protest, though, they generally get beaten down (literally) and/or arrested.

Politicians do tend to pander in order to remain in power. That is probably a widespread trait and practice which cuts across geographic and cultural boundaries.

My take is that *if* Ahmadinejad is primarily pandering, he is pandering to the fundamentalist or radical element. If he thinks they are worth pandering to politically, they must clearly represent a very substantial bloc. Yet it is also true that there exists a substantial bloc of Iranians who hold much more progressive views.

You might find it interesting to do a Google search on Ahmadinejad + "12th imam" or Ahmadinejad + "Mahdi" and read a few of the articles. You might find it eye-opening as to what some people on the other side of the world and in different cultures really believe and profess to believe. Ahmadfinejad seems clearly to me to be one of those people. But I won't ruin the fun; do the search yourself and read a little bit and I guarantee you will be quite surprised at least.

Ignorance is not limited to any one country or culture, though I wasn't hinting at ignorance with my question. It is common to think that people of other views are ignorant. Interestingly, they often think the same about people of, say, our views. Just because someone believes in fundamental religion does not mean that they must be generally ignorant.

There exist cultures and ideologies which genuinely look down on ours. They usually don't apologize for it, though - because they consider their views to be simply correct. Western liberalism tends to feel it must be equally accepting or accomodating of all others' belief systems. That tolerance is often not reciprocated, though. Therein lies one of the rubs.

There will be much drama and unfolding in the Middle East over the coming years and decades. I think the West will learn much that it hasn't been generally aware of. The learning process has already started; let's hope it will not be too painful and traumatic (though my guess is that it will be so in many ways).

Thanks for reading and for your responses.