I was going to come back and respond to you point by point, but it comes down to this: We're not assuming the worst about Islam, or even assuming the worst about this letter. What we are doing is making a conclusion from the FACT that an unstable fascist who is hoping to get nukes has promised to wipe Israel out and defeat us in a war. If he is not serious then he is doing a pretty good job of pretending. I wouldn't want to bomb Iran tomorrow, but the time's going to come soon where they will be told to give up the nukes, and if they say "no," we
must deal with them militarily right away.
There were folks like you couseling caution when Hitler took the Rhineland. They felt there was no need to take him at his word, or fly off the handle. Sorry, never again.
As for your assertion that American bloggers are screwing this up, see the posts by Mideast translators in this thread. This is no joke. Review the comments in this thread from people who regularly translate Middocuments
It's the 'nothing left to lose' aura Nutjob projects. He knows full well the ~progressive population under him wants his posse strung up, but as they contemplate the collateral damage inherent in doing so - apparently they want a bloodless coup - he knows he can arrange world opinion along with petro prices such that the potential reformers just plain chicken out.
Then again there is an accumulation of force in Eastern Iraq that may be there in the case they decide not chicken out.