Although hopes weren't very high for genuinely free elections in Iran, it was hoped that because Iran's single largest voting bloc consisted of people under the age of 30, whichever of the candidates allowed on the ballot was the most moderate would become the new president of Iran.
From the perspective of the West, the "worst-case" scenario they feared most was the return of Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, Iran's former president and one of the most hard-line candidates available, despite his campaign's efforts to portray him as a "moderate."
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Rafsanjani was a member of the "moderately mad" variety of mullahs, a brutal hardliner who put down Iran's student rebellion using paid thugs to attack dissident groups and beat up dissidents. But given the overwhelming support Rafsanjani enjoyed among the other mad mullahs, who are the real governors of Iran, Rafsanjani became the odds-on favorite to win.
Indeed, the only choices available to Iranian voters were mad mullahs of the ruling Islamic sect and a few non-clerics whose genuine political views were hazy at best. None of the candidates could run unless approved by Iran's Islamic Governing Council, hence the phrase "moderately mad" to describe the most moderate offerings available.
Returning Rafsanjani to the presidency of Iran would have been a step backward for Iran's student democracy movement and any near-future thawing of relations between the United States and the Islamic regime. What they got was potentially much worse.
If Rafsanjani was a "moderate reformer" (doubtful) the victor, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, is a hard-line conservative along the lines of the Ayatollah Ruhalla Khomeini, the rabble-rousing cleric who oversaw the Iranian revolution and the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the seizure and detention of the U.S. Embassy employees held hostage for 444 days.
What does the phrase "hard-line conservative" mean in the context of Iranian politics? Ahmadinejad was one of the founders of the Islamic Society of Students. During the Iran-Iraq War he joined Iran's Revolutionary Guard and reportedly participated in covert assassination operations of critics of Iran's ruling mullahs across Europe.
On the day after his election, Ahmadinejad announced that "Iran will strengthen ties with all countries except the U.S."
As for the United States, we will not be able to forge friendly ties with a country that is hostile to us. Doing this will be meaningless until Washington drastically changes its attitude toward Iran.
Ahmadinejad said Iran "does not beware U.S. threats." He claimed that U.S. concerns over Iran's nuclear activities are groundless. "Possessing nuclear energy is the legal right of the Iranian people. We will be working to eliminate the drawbacks in the energy sector this way."
During his presidential campaign, Ahmadinejad criticized Iran's negotiators for making concessions to the Europeans – particularly freezing the nuclear program.
Upon Ahmadinejad's election, Iran's top nuclear negotiator (a reputed "moderate") abruptly resigned. Several days later, Iran officially denied Hasan Rowhani's resignation, and Rowhani later announced he will "stay on" until Ahmadinejad is formally inaugurated.
Thousands of years ago, the prophet Ezekiel foretold the rise of a vast anti-Israeli alliance, spearheaded by Russia with Iran as its principle partner. Just in this generation, Iran has gone from being a pro-Western U.S. ally to one of America's most implacable enemies. Russia is currently Iran's principle protector and supplier of nuclear materials for what will most undoubtedly become part of Iran's nuclear arsenal.
The only alternative to a nuclear Iran would be an Israeli first strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. Ezekiel described exactly this situation more than 2,000 years ago, and now, for the first time in history, all the players are on the same stage at precisely the right moment in history for Ezekiel's vision to become reality.
Coincidence? I don't think so.