The biggest foreign policy question today is whether the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is really as utterly irrational as he talks. When he calls for wiping Israel from the map, is he serious? When he talks about privately communing with the Twelfth Imam, and of the Second Coming complete with Armageddon, is this guy for real? Does he understand that the Israelis can wipe him out with 200 real nukes if they are ever driven to that extreme?

Rush Limbaugh at one time speculated that Ahmadinejad threatens the world to drive up the prices of oil to fatten his budget. Others think it's all an act, to intimidate other countries in the neighborhood.

Well, now we know. Ahmadinejad just sent a letter to German Chancellor Merkel, apparently trying to persuade her to help him wrap up Hitler's unfortunately failed effort at a Final Solution to the Jewish Problem. 

Anybody who knows anything about Germany since Konrad Adenauer knows how hard German politicians have been running away from the Nazi years, along with just about every sane and decent person in that country. Germans who weren't even alive in the 1930s resent the ongoing obsession other Europeans have with the Hitler Holocaust. And unless one believes in group guilt unto the seventh generation, they have a point.

Obviously Ahmadinejad is living in a 'way different mental universe. According to German government sources, the letter to Merkel:

"is all related to Germany and how we have to find a solution to the Palestinian problems and Zionism and so on. It's rather weird," The official, who has seen the letter, said. [....]

'There's nothing about the nuclear issue (in the letter),' the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the extreme sensitivity of the issue for the German government.

Angela Merkel is no fool. In February, Merkel compared Ahmadinejad's statements and stance to Adolf Hitler's rise to power when he and his Nazi party began threatening to exterminate European Jewry.

'Remember that in 1933 many people said it was just rhetoric,' she said.

The "nuclear issue" is of course the fact that Germany, France and Britain have been trying to persuade Ahmadinejad to get serious about stopping nuke development.

Reuters continues:

Berlin's relations with Ahmadinejad have been complicated by his denial of the Holocaust, in which Germany's Nazi regime killed six million Jews, and his call for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany punishable with up to five years in prison.

'It's extremely touchy (for the German government),' said the official, adding that the government did not yet know if or how it would respond. 'There are a lot of propaganda phrases about Israel and the Jews inside.'

Well, we can guess the rest.

The letter to Merkel is the strongest evidence to date that Ahmadinejad isn't just "faking crazy," as psychiatrists say when a patient tries to act worse than he really is. There is no sensible political payoff for this very bizarre missive. The Merkel government was plainly embarassed by it, and refused to repy at all, an almost unprecedented diplomatic insult from one head of state to another.

In May, Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to President Bush that was leaked to the press even before the White House heard of it. That one looked like a political move, to show how really peace—loving the mad mullahs are, compared to the nasty warmongering Bush. That letter told President Bush that after all they worshipped the same God, and didn't every country deserve its very own WMDs? But this letter has no such gamesmanship. It is a private, confidential letter from one head of government to another, suggesting some sort of alliance to take care of Zionism.

Even the Saudis and Egyptians, who bear no love for Israel, are openly moving away from Iran. They can't feel comfortable seeing Mullah Strangelove rushing toward enriched uranium and ICBMs. Especially because they live only a hundred miles away. When the new Caliphate is proclaimed in Tehran, they know they're next.

We've seen some pretty whacky heads of states, people like Khadafy, Kim Jong Il, Pol Pot, Robert Mugabe, enough to fill a high—class asylum. But none of them had nukes, or proclaimed their intention to use them at the first chance.

This guy will have them soon enough. The question is whether the cowardly nations who like to hide behind Unce Sam will finally get what's happening. With a genuine NATO alliance we can take care of him pronto.

If NATO can't even do that, watch out world.

James Lewis is a frequent contributor.