As for Iran, the mullahs have watched the Russians eat their oats, and they’ve watched them feel their oats, and now they’ve seen them sow their oats.

Well, if memory serves Russia occupied northern Iran during WWII, and decided that after the war they were going to stay, thank you. They argued that it was part of historic Russia and if it weren’t, it should have been. OK, they were probably standing up for their fraternal Azerbaijanian brothers. They hadn’t thought of the passport trick yet. In anycase, Truman asked nice and Stalin agreed to leave.

Now, we are all so busy remembering the CIA guy who spread some money around to help get that leftist prime minister kicked out (back in nineteen aught fifty-four, I believe) that it is understandable no one knows of that earlier episode — and generally discount that whole “Russia wanting to bath its feet in the Indian Ocean” thing. But some of those old mullahs may have paused, during their initial memorization of the Koran, and noticed a certain covetousness among their Northern neighbors.

Say what you will about the great Satan, he’s at least on the other side of the globe. So dialing back on that “eternal enemy thing” might be called for — not among the hotheads, but among those capable of more sober reflection. To perform an effective balancing act they will need that counterweight. Besides, if you can break up Georgia, why not Iran? Is it time to print those passports?