Is there any relevance at all to the salutation that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used in his letter to President Bush? Was it just a throw away line that had no meaning? Or was it a specific warning to America and the west to convert to Islam or be conquered?

Taken by itself, the line as translated “Peace only unto those who follow the true path.” would seem to indicate more religious hyperbole from the the man we are assured by our intellectual betters is only talking in apocalyptic terms for “domestic consumption.” Let him rant, they tell us, for Iran is no danger to the United States and after all, we’ve been beastly to them in the past, haven’t we?

But if that ending salutation was included deliberately – and given the huge importance placed by the Iranians on the letter this seems a pretty good bet – then one is left to ponder what exactly President Ahmadinejad meant when he used it.

Is the Iranian President echoing the Prophet Mohamed from 1500 years ago?

It is a phrase with historical significance in Islam, for, according to Islamic tradition, in year six of the Hejira – the late 620s – the prophet Mohammad sent letters to the Byzantine emperor and the Sassanid emperor telling them to convert to the true faith of Islam or be conquered. The letters included the same phrase that President Ahmadinejad used to conclude his letter to Mr. Bush. For Mohammad, the letters were a prelude to a Muslim offensive, a war launched for the purpose of imposing Islamic rule over infidels.

The exact words? Pretty chilling, that. But as I said, are we taking these words out of context? After all, this is not the 7th century and no one in their right mind would declare war on America and the west, right?

Here’s the Iranian President talking about exactly what he means during his visit to Indonesia:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Thursday that his letter to President George W. Bush did not concern the nuclear dossier, but rather was an invitation to Islam and the prophets culture.

He made the above remarks in reply to a reporter while attending press conference on his letter to President Bush in Jakarta in the afternoon of the third day of his stay in Jakarta. Stressing that the letter was beyond the nuclear issue, the chief executive said that in principle, the country’s nuclear case is not so significant to make him write a letter about it.

“We act according to laws and our activities are quite clear. We are rather intent on solving more fundamental global matters.”

“The letter was an invitation to monotheism and justice, which are common to all divine prophets. If the call is responded positively, there will be no more problems to be solved,” added the president.

The president said that the letter actually contained a clear message of invitation to human beliefs, adding that its response will determine the future.

The fact that this statement reconciles with what he wrote throughout his letter to President Bush should give any thinking person in the western world pause to consider how exactly Ahmadinejad might go about making good on this “invitation.”

Of course, our betters are already assuring us that Ahmadinejad was only speaking truth to power when he wrote that strange, insulting letter to the President. He, like his ideological soulmate Adolph Hitler, only used such language and such a tone to get attention. They are not really serious about “ridding Europe of the Jew menace” or “wiping Israel off the map.” This is all exaggerated rhetoric and therefore not even worth writing about. Best to portray the Iranian as a reasonable sort, someone the west can do business with if only we stopped being so darn insistent that someone be allowed to take a close look at his nuclear program to make sure (and believe me, we’re sure) that he’s not building one of those nuke thingies.

I am perplexed that we in the west have become so supine about our invincibility that when someone who has proven in thought, word, and deed that they are the mortal enemy of everything we hold near and dear to our hearts – that which falls under the rubric of “western liberal democracy – and then spells out in language that his culture and background tell him is a merciful warning to the infidel to change or be consumed, at which point we do absolutely nothing, I wonder if we in the west still has what it takes to defend our values and our beliefs.

Has Ahmadinejad taken note of our disinterest? I daresay we will regret the day we find out the answer to that question.

UPDATE: FROM OUR “HOLY SH*T!” FILE

The IAEA bumblers have apparently stumbled across some uranium residue that has been enriched far beyond anything the Iranians need for nuclear fuel. While further tests are needed, the residue tested is “beyond” weapons grade:

The U.N. atomic agency found traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian site linked to the country’s defense ministry, diplomats said Friday, adding to concerns that Tehran was hiding activities aimed at making nuclear arms.

The diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for revealing the confidential information, said the findings were preliminary and still had to be confirmed through other lab tests. But they said the density of enrichment appeared to be close to or above the level used to make nuclear warheads.

Still, they said, further analysis could show that the traces match others established to have come from abroad. The International Atomic Energy Agency determined earlier traces of weapons-grade uranium were imported on equipment from Pakistan that Iran bought on the black market during nearly two decades of clandestine activity discovered just over three years ago.

Why the IAEA has not revealed this is obvious; if they did so, then they would have to do something about it. And that means confrontation, something that ElBaradei and his cohorts try to avoid at all costs. Never mind that their job is to “speak truth to nuclear power.” Never mind that the Security Council relies on them to give members all the facts so that one of the momentus decisions of the young century can be made.

Is this what has emboldened Ahmadinejad? Could it be possible, even remotely, that the Iranians already have the bomb or are within an angel’s hair of building one?

I want to disbelieve what this news portends. But frankly, I do not trust the IAEA and ElBaradei to stop any country from developing nuclear weapons if they are so inclined. If Iran did indeed (as many suspected as recently as 6 months ago) have a two track nuclear program with greater urgency and secrecy given to the military end, it is remotely possible that they are much further along in developing a working nuclear weapon than we have been led to believe by our own experts as well as the CIA.

Will we even hear if the IAEA determines that the uranium residue is not from equipment bought in Pakistan but is actually the result of experiments done on site in Iran?

Don’t go there….