The neo-cons wasted no time in attacking Ahmedinejad. They falsely said that he was one of the U.S. embassy hostage takers and that he was an international assassin who traveled to Austria to murder a dissident. Ahmedinejad, whose Muslim conservative base is similar to George W. Bush's base of fanatic fundamentalist Christians and Orthodox Jews, ratcheted things up by playing the Israel and Holocaust denial cards.

Iran's pragmatists, who now include the Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamanei, slowly began to see the trap the neo-cons laid for Iran by helping to engineer Ahmedinejad's victory. Khamanei has promoted Rafsanjani to head the Expediency Council, a sort of referee arbitration council that settles policy and legislative differences between the Parliament (Majles) and the mullahs. Khamanei has also positioned Rafsanjani close to him at public appearances -- a sign that Rafsanjani may be the next Ayatollah after Khamanei's death and is increasingly calling the shots. Essentially, Ahmedinejad, who wants to pack the government with Revolutionary Guard elements, has seen his power checkmated.

The neo-cons would have us believe that Ahmedinejad is the new Saddam. However, Saddam never had religious leaders who checked his power. Iran is not Iraq and the neo-cons cannot sell us a new (and costlier) war based on the same old tired rhetoric and myopic viewpoints.