Nuts and flakes . . .

TAKES ALL KINDS TO MAKE A POLITY. And in Iran, nuts and flakes abound. There's an election coming at the beginning of March. I Need a Dinner Jacket's kinda worried about it, too, because Iranian politics have become more fractious, as the various factions try to work out the path to power held by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to Thomas Erdbrink at the Washington Post, in his article, "Establishment factions to face off in Iranian elections", it's a real free-for-all:

Iran has begun gearing up for elections that will represent a showdown between two factions that just three years ago formed a united establishment against the opposition Green Movement.

In parliamentary elections March 2, supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will face off against an alliance of hard-line clerics, Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and bazaar merchants who had been instrumental in keeping Ahmadinejad in power before they turned against him.

Both groups are striving for a majority in a parliament that can either obstruct or speed up initiatives by Ahmadinejad’s government. While the two factions together had formed a hugely influential bloc, monopolizing all major centers of power, a disagreement over the firing of the country’s intelligence chief last spring caused a final breakup after months of tension. Now clerics and commanders are accusing Ahmadinejad’s advisers of plotting to push them from power and to reduce the role of Islam in the country.

Now, add the nuclear considerations and military egos . . . should be an interesting year.

Harpoonage:
Iranian naval ships take part in a naval parade
on the last day of the Velayat-90 war game
in the Sea of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.

Somewhere, not too far away, there's a Seawolf-class hunter-killer with targeting solutions for the Harpoons and the Mk 48's . . .  memo to Gen. Ataollah Salehi: do not obsess over the carriers.