The Very Good Wizard and the Very Bad Wizard

Once upon a time, there lived two rival wizards. One was a Very Good Wizard, and one was a Very Bad Wizard. Each of them ruled a powerful kingdom. Not surprisingly, the kingdoms reflected the characters of their rulers. So, one was a Very Good Kingdom, and one was a Very Bad Kingdom.

Now, the Very Good Kingdom and the Very Bad Kingdom were not the only two kingdoms in the world. There were many other kingdoms that were varying degrees of Good and Bad, though none, of course, either as Good as the Very Good Kingdom or as Bad as the Very Bad Kingdom.

It wasn't long before the Very Good Wizard noticed a problem. The problem was that the Very Bad Wizard, because he was so Bad, wanted to conquer all the Good Kingdoms, and none of the Good Kingdoms was powerful enough to resist ... without the help of the Very Good Wizard. So the Very Good Wizard, because he was so Good, cast powerful spells to protect the Good Kingdoms from the Very Bad Kingdom. This made the Very Bad Wizard angry, so he cast some very powerful counter spells to protect the Bad Kingdoms, which were his allies. All in all, this worked pretty well. There was a lot of grumbling, but not much actual ... war. This is known as "Balance of Power" politics.

This state of affairs went on for many years. Then one day, the Very Bad Wizard died. The Very Good Wizard and all the people of the Very Good Kingdom and all the people from all the other good kingdoms danced in the streets, singing, "Ding-dong, the Very Bad Wizard is dead!" A lot of the formerly bad kingdoms became good kingdoms, and the Very Bad Wizard's protective counter spells went away. And the Very Bad Kingdom got a new ruler.

"Welcome to the Good world!" grinned the Very Good Wizard to the new ruler of the Very Bad Kingdom. "I'll teach you everything you need to know about being Good. Just stick with me, kid."

"Well, I'm not sure about that," said the new ruler of the Very Bad Kingdom uncertainly, "but let's talk. I'm sure we don't have to be enemies anymore."

"And I'll just extend those powerful protective spells to the formerly bad kingdoms," said the Very Good Wizard. "Especially, the ones right next door to you."

"Um, why?" asked the new ruler of the Very Bad Kingdom. "Those spells were to protect the good kingdoms from us, when we were Very Bad, and all of our protective spells are off. I'm sorry, but I'm having a little trouble understanding who's Very Good here."

Me, too. With all the bugbears of the Cold war - the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact, the 'International Communist Conspiracy' - gone, how's come we not only still have NATO, but we're 'encircling' the noncommunist, non-Soviet Russian Federation? And why do we pretend to be shocked when they react?