Writes old hand Edward Djerejian:

First, there was the overthrow of the shah of Iran by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Second, there was the takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, by a group of Islamic extremists. And third, there was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Once a long, long time ago, Confucius researched and wrote about Juhayman’s takeover of the Great Mosque. A fascinating and little-understood hinge of history. Djerejian gets it. Yaroslav Trofimov wrote a book on it not long ago, which Confucius has not yet read. Read Djerejian on the baleful legacy of 1979—arguably the fruits of the last administration with the same foreign-policy premises as the current one—and tremble.

Confucius, Œc. Vol.

Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu.