The civilized world is now united against Iran. Can the American president exploit the opportunity? After Eugene “Bull” Connor, the sheriff of Birmingham, Ala., turned dogs and fire hoses on black protesters in May, 1963, John F. Kennedy observed that “the Civil Rights movement should thank God for Bull Connor. He's helped it as much as Abraham Lincoln.” It was the perfect putdown. Connor had been a hero to Southern bigots. JFK, with one withering remark, condemned him to that most ignoble form of immortality for a Southerner. He would forever be remembered as the butt of a Yankee joke....