A delicate touch in Iran and Iraq

Delicately dealing simultaneously with Iran and Iraq, U.S. policy regarding the former is preposterous yet useful and U.S. policy regarding the latter is lucid but delusional.

Regarding Iran, the faded and tattered flag of arms control is being unfurled for yet another pious salute, the predictable result of which will be redundant confirmation of the axiom that arms control is impossible until it is unimportant. Regarding Iraq, the hope is that the democratic transformation that took centuries in much more promising social settings can succeed in Iraq, given an extra week.