What Will Happen In Iran?

A great deal of global tension rests on the direction Iran will take in the next few days.  Joel Rosenberg reports:

Keep your eyes on Iran on June 12th. That's the date Iranian voters go to the polls to "choose" their next leaders. "Choose" is putting the best face on it. The elections are effectively rigged by the forces of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The man the Supreme Leader wants to be president will be "elected" president. Period. End of sentence. The question is whether Khamenei wants Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to remain in office. If so, Ahmadinejad should remain in power and the nuclear showdown with Israel and the U.S. will intensify dramatically. Thus far, it would appear on the surface that Khamenei agrees completely with Ahmadinejad's eschatology, or End Times theology. The Supreme Leader has occassionally reined in the President on social or economic issues, but never in Ahmadinejad's outspoken view that the end of the world is near, the Islamic Messiah known as the Mahdi is coming, and the way to hasten the Mahdi's coming is to annihilate Israel and the U.S. Last August, Khamenei appeared to endorse Ahmadinejad for re-election. This week, 211 members of the 295-seat Iranian parliament endorsed Ahmadinejad for re-election. But in the labyrinthian world of Radical Islamic politics in Iran, nothing is certain. The Iranian economy is a basket case — worse given the steep fall of the price of oil from its highs last year of nearly $150 a barrel. Unemployment in Iran is high. Poverty is growing. Drug and alcohol abuse rates are high and rising. Rank-and-file Iranians can't stand Ahmadinejad or his End of the World-brand of clerical advisors. Personally, I'm praying that the God of the Bible removes both Khamenei and Ahmadinejad from power, along with their kindred spirits. If they're replaced with even semi-rational actors (ie, those not part of an apocalyptic, genocidal death cult), diplomacy could work and some measure of peace in the region might be a bit more likely. But should the Lord allow these two to stay in power for the next few years, then an apocalyptic war might truly be coming.

Israel certainly will be keeping an eye on this one, and so should we.  After all, we're the two nations that Ahmadinejad has sworn to wipe off the face of the map.

There's my two cents.