"Have your mullah call my mullah."

If foreign policy or diplomacy is war by other means as Clausewitz aptly stated, we could easily borrow Clemenceau's wry observation and say, "Diplomacy is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to diplomats."

Today, Iran and America are dancing to diplomacy's intoxicating melodies. My preference would be a brace of pistols at 20 paces. Ajax v. Hector. Horatii v. Curiattii. Bush v. Ahmadinejad. Cast the die. Let Zeus hold aloft the scales of justice. Winner take all. "Heads you get nukes, Tails we kick the sh** outta you!" There is great beauty in simplicity.

The dance began long ago. Like Tolstoy's Natasha going to her first ball, Condi is aglow and bejeweled for this courtly ritual; one can but hope that Putin doesn't play the part of Anatoly, and bespoils her charms.