Don't Rock the Boat

One wonders why Iran is being so belligerent. David Ignatius does. So do I. The difference is that I don't think the Iranians are either (1) the new Nazis, or (2) otherwise insane. I seem to recall learning about something at the University of Chicago called "mutually assured destruction", a subset of game theory. People have won Nobel Prizes in Economics for their work on this... Anyhow, a number of US Presidents, Nixon among them, were considered by the game theory crowd to have been exceedingly clever at 'rocking the boat' such that the other side thought you might be nuts and actually willing to start a thermonuclear war. 'Rocking the boat.' Well, maybe the Iranians think – to switch metaphors – that they've got us by the short and curlies and are making the point. It's a possibility.