Iran, Ahmadinejad, and the coming of the 12th Imam

The righty blogosphere has been very agressive of late in amplifying many of Iranian President Ahmadinejad's more whacko-fundy public statements.  These statements include holocaust denials, calls for wiping Israel off the map, and references to the coming of the Mahdi, or 12th Imam, a Shia "left behind" type eschatology that dovetails nicely with the millenial Christianist whacko ideologies of the West.  But is it for real?

Now, lately a lot of fuss has been made about Iran getting the bomb.  In reality, the fact that Israel already has at least one practically ensures that other countries in the region are going to aggressively pursue a nuclear capability, even more so now that the U.S. remains committed to its "preemptive war" foreign policy.  

So, the key question here for me is: are Ahmadinejad's statements about the Mahdi for real?  Or are they simply boilerplate game theory deterrence tactics to make your enemy think you're capable of a first strike to put them on the defensive (see Reagan: "evil empire", and "missiles launching in 5 minutes" statement).

The reason this matters is that we are primed for an Iraq war redux (but this time with a real threat).  As the 2006 elections near, I fully anticipate more of this fear-mongering from both Iran and the U.S. since it works nicely for radicals in both East and West, as our real problems continue to be generally ignored (global warming, poverty, bird flu, etc.)

Basically my overarching fear is that nutcases on both sides are going to spoil the party known as world civilization.  

The Democrats' Alito collapse doesn't bode well for their ability to bring sanity back to the discussion about Iran.  They need a coherent response to the Iran situation NOW, before we all get blindsided AGAIN.

Thoughts?