Exactly if he was paying attention he would have known that the chief cleric in Iran resigned several weeks ago out of protest of Iran's human rights record.
I agree with that. The younger generation growing up there and taking over aren't anywhere near as radical as the current and previous leaders.
That taking out Iraq is likely going to be the straw that breaks the Iranian governments back.
Here is where we part ways. A US (Christian west) invasion and occupation of Iraq won't do anything but stiffen the resolve of the religious nutcases still in power in Iraq,and give them recruits. "The Americans are coming to colonize Iran and the whole middle-east!" will be a powerful recruiting tool,and one hard to deny or prove false.
Nope,the leaders and people in Iran might not like Hussein,but they and everyone else in the middle-east and Muslim world will see it as a attack of one culture and religion (the west's) of another (theirs).