GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS ABOUT IRAN: Tom Holsinger writes on StrategyPage that the mullahs are so desperate that they’re importing Palestinian and Iraqi mercenaries to keep their own people in line. “A tottering government’s resort to foreign mercenaries for domestic suppression, in lieu of existing regime-protection forces, indicates that its end is near.”

The bad news is, they’re also getting assistance from the U.S. State Department, which values stability over the collapse of a hostile regime. Holsinger says that this is typical:

The major issue here is the State Department, as it has been so captured by its foreign constituencies that it is effectively on the other side in the war on terror.

Sounds like major housecleaning is in order.