Oh, those Iranians.

They had their time at the pinnacle of civilized superpowerdom about 2,500 years ago when they were Persia.

Now they’re firing missiles, making threats, enriching uranium and supposedly building nuclear bombs so that, according to some, they can reach that pinnacle again.

They didn’t last long the last time — a couple hundred years, until they lost a series of battles against the Greeks.

The Greeks taught them a thing or two then, and several people have asked me if I’ve seen “300,” the movie based on the Battle of Thermopylae. In that battle, 300 Spartans fought to the last man against the army of the Persian king, Xerxes. The Persians won the battle, but not the war, as the saying goes, and no, I haven’t seen the movie.

In movies, old wars tend to assume contemporary thought. “Gladiator” with Russell Crowe, the last ancient history movie I’ve seen, suggests the rebellion against the emperor Commodus attempted to establish a republic and end the reign of emperors, as if democracy were uppermost in people’s minds then.

New thought tends to get muddled with old history that way in movies.

And sometimes old attitudes tend to mix with new beliefs, too.

For instance, most countries today would say we’re trying to live in peace — but we’re not.

We don’t want peace. We all want to be at the top. That’s human nature. We say we keep armies and deploy them only when we or our interests are threatened. That’s what we say, but the truth is we want to be at the top.

That’s why we in America are upset now. We used to sell more cars than anyone in the world, and we’re losing that battle.

China is kicking our butt at manufacturing, and we’re reeling at the effects on our economy.

India is beating us like a drum at call centers and we’re having to talk to them on the phone when we’re reserving a flight or trying to order a new part for our machinery.

And now our military, the most powerful in the world, has its hands full in Iraq — and those modern-day Persians are firing missiles and talking trash, and we don’t have the manpower for Iranians to take our warnings seriously.

Oh, those Iranians and that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, they’re mocking us.