“Geography points to battleground Iraq”
The fringe extremist Shi’ite sect that currently rules Iran (called Twelvers) believe that the final “end-of-times” battle between Sunnis and Shi’ites is pre-ordained to take place in Iraq.
The ideology of the current Iranian Regime is very much built around a great end of the world battle, which brings the Last Imam (the Mahdi) back out from “occultation” to lead them to final victory, and results in the Kingdom of God on Earth.
The Iranians often publicly promote the bringing on of the final eschatological battle, as the best outcome they could hope for - all the more reason to keep nukes out of their hands.
You know your Shiite wackos! But then the Sunni Saudis have their wacky Wahabis and Salafists.
People like to say there are not that many Shiite Muslims in the world. Big mistake. In the Middle East + Persia the Shiites are 30-35% of all Muslims which is competitive.