re: "Political theater"
Ahmadinejad is a foreign policy amateur. And as I have already pointed out, he is not running the whole show in Iran. Your point is well taken about sacrifice; blood spillage is a central Shia ritual. Of course it must be taken seriously, and? We've already heard from the Iranian Embassy in Moscow (a frequentl outlet for policy statements), which mitigated somewhat the sharp edges of the President's rhetoric.
Do you disagree with the idea of expanding dialogue (not necessarily with Ahmadinejad)?