Boiled frog: The Iran war has backed Italy into a schizophrenic corner. The country it has long revered no longer looks or behaves like its old self, leaving both admirers and critics stunned before what they consider an epochal shift. The far-right ruling coalition naturally sides with Washington, but opposition parties are far more skeptical. No one here or anywhere else has much fondness for Iran’s Islamic regime, yet some do question America’s heavy-handed tactics. Others abhor Israel’s role as America’s attack dog (a remnant of longstanding antisemitism). In general, Italians ardently dislike wars. They had little patience for America’s protracted conflict in Iraq, an era that saw tens of thousands of rainbow-colored peace flags ubiquitously hung from apartment windows throughout the country. Many were the anti-war street demonstrations, and Iran has brought a new wave of them. Fallout from America’s lengthy Iraq presence as well as the global financial debacle of 2007 helped push Italy from the center-right to the center-left, albeit briefly. Something of this sort may occur in 2027 when the country will hold general elections — a leftward turn now seemingly more possible following the heavy defeat of a government-sponsored referendum that would’ve given political parties greater control over the judiciary. For now, all remains muddled. In effect, Italians are taking stock not only of their country but also of a transformed America whose values it long saw as immutable. In 1977, I interviewed poet and Nobel laureate Eugenio Montale. At the time, Leftist terrorism haunted Italy. What, I asked him, might the future hold. He answered as only a poet could. Maybe a stew of fine meats, he replied, then paused, or maybe a giant frog no one knows whether to eat or to run from. So it is that nervous Italy awaits what the cook has to offer.