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Source: http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2883/iranian-regime-rational
Is the Iranian Regime Rational?
(Stonegate Institute) Harold Rhode - Recently, the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dempsey, said that the Iranian regime is rational. It is rational - but within its own Iranian context - not ours. The current leaders of Iran, according to the late Ayatollah Khomeini, are dangerous. When he ruled Iran, he did his best to keep them out of government: he knew Iran's current rulers believe that by provoking a conflagration, they would try to make their Mahdi - their messiah - return. Destruction, for Iran's rulers, is an inducement, not a deterrent. From the point of view of Iran's rulers, provoking a conflagration is eminently rational. The writer joined the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense in 1982 as an advisor on Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. From 1994 until 2010 he served in the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment.