Ames Progressive

In the October/November issue of the Ames Progressive we published “A Conversation with Christopher Hitchens,” by Gavin Aronsen and Ryan Gerdes. During the conversation, Hitchens, discussing the possibility of pre-emptive military action against a potentially nuclear Iran, asserted that “the evidence against the Iranian government [demonstrating the existence of a nuclear weapons program] has been accumulated by the European Union, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and other authorities. It’s not an indictment that comes from our CIA or anyone in the U.S. administration who could be accused of exaggeration.”

But since our last issue was published, the now-famous National Intelligence Estimate titled “Iran: National Intentions and Capabilities” has determined “with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program” and that the program was halted “primarily in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure resulting from exposure of Iran’s previously undeclared nuclear work.” This new assessment contradicts previous reports by U.S. and international intelligence agencies and statements by the Bush administration and has introduced a powerful new variable into the tense relations between the U.S. and Iran. It has also caused a shift in the national discussion about our future in the Middle East.

Hitchens, though, has not lot the NIE dissuade his previous certainty. On CNN’s Reliable Sources, Hitchens dismissed the report, calling the CIA “highly incompetent,” and took the Bush line, saying that “the fact that a program can be suspended means that there was one, which means that it may only be on pause.” Hitchens’ hard-line stance against Tehran seems to transcend the individual reports of the nation’s capabilities and to be grounded in something deeper. He was speaking for himself, too, when he said that “the president’s still quite entitled to say, ‘Well, it confirms what we’ve always thought.’ ”

We consider this information to be worth noting here because it is a new and significant plot-point in a developing story of global significance – remember that only a few weeks ago, Bush warned that failing to halt Iran’s nuclear program could lead to World War III. The Bush administration’s selective blindness and war-mongering, which led to the invasion of Iraq, have been exposed again by the NIE.

The action that Hitchens has advocated in the Ames Progressive and elsewhere would have, if enacted, a devastating impact in the Middle East and would dramatically extend the scope of the violence the U.S. has already unleashed. And now the NIE has undermined Hitchens’ claims about the existence of Iran’s nuclear program, on the basis of which he argued, and continues to argue, for military action against the nation.