Friendly reminder that the Cold War is over

It made sense to oppose Russia with all our might when the Cold War was actually a thing. Cold Wars are nasty affairs that involve things like your enemy saying they will bury you, enslaving whole nations under a totalitarian government, exporting revolutionary ideologies to the far corners of the earth, and placing nuclear weapons and tens of thousands of troops in a country 100 miles from your own coastline. But given that Russia no longer does any of these things and has not made aggressive moves on anyone since it gave up control of 700,000 square miles of territory and 180 million people in what was widely believed to be the end of the Cold War, one might reasonably conclude that the Cold War is, in fact, over.

This isn't very complicated.

Iran toning down the hate

IMAGINE MY SURPRISE to discover that the despots of Iran have decided to stage a kinder, gentler anti-America hatefest on this year's national holiday:

Iran marked its national holiday on Friday with nationwide rallies with far less of the usual vitriol for the United States, in what seemed a move calculated to avoid further inciting President Trump.

Many observers had expected Iranian leaders to take aim at Mr. Trump during rallies celebrating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. 

The stacks of posters handed out by state organizations largely avoided mentions of Mr. Trump. Anti-American slogans, usually printed in English in the past for the international news media to see, were mostly in Persian. Most notably, there were no missiles on display, as had been customary in previous years, to show off Iran’s military capabilities. 

Tensions between the United States and Iran have surged in recent weeks, after Mr. Trump blocked citizens of Iran and six other predominantly Muslim nations from visiting the United States, and he called Iran “#1 in terror.” His national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, put the country “on notice” after it conducted a missile test late last month. 

There were examples of anti-American sentiment on view, however: [...] But given the size of the rally in Tehran, the usual anti-Americanism appeared less noticeable than in previous years. 

“Today’s rally shows that the government does not want any confrontation with the U.S.,” said Farshad Ghorbanpour, an analyst who is close to the government of President Hassan Rouhani. “Don’t be surprised, we have no interest with tensions.”

It's almost as if taking a hard line with avowed enemies, and acting scary and unpredictable... tends to strike the fear of Allah into said enemies, with a salubrious effect on their behavior? Hold on, someone from the Harvard Kennedy School is here to explain why I'm wrong.

As a side note, I love the phrase "to avoid further inciting President Trump." Just smile and nod, and back away slowly...