Very few reasonable people doubt President Obama’s intellectual capacity, but some worry that he is not the sort to seek out infromation that challenges his long-held views. One of those views is that the Islamic Republic of Iran is a nation that the United States can engage in serious, sustained and ultimately fruitful negotiations over a variety of issues including the mullahs’ nuclear ambitions. Even if the new president is absolutely convinced of his ability to achieve that which no president since Jimmy Carter has been able to do –though each of them, including both Bush 41 and 43, tried– he ought still to spend some time with two books and a movie that communicate the opposite view.
The first book is a serious and riveting read by a dedicated journalist who is no doubt very high on the hit list of the Iranian theocracy that has long used foreign assassinations of exiles as a tool of state policy.
Amir Taheri was the executive editor of the largest newspaper in Iran prior to the Khomeinist revolution. As a prolific writer throughout his exile, he has contributed important stories and analyses to the world’s most influential newspapers and published highly regarded books on Iran and the West.
Now Taheri has written his most important book, The Persian Night
For those who simply refuse to read history or any sort of non-fiction, National Review editor Rich Lowry’s excellent new thriller Banquo’s Ghosts,
In the case of Baquo's Ghost, the reality is not just in the portraits of bureaucratic incompetents in America's intelligence agencies or of the occasional hyper-competent espionage operative --the former all too true, the latter, sadly, too good to be true-- but far more importantly in the message that Iran's radical elites are irrevocably committed to a real war against America. The novel drives home truths about the fanaticism of Iran's ruling elite in the same way that John le Carre and Len Deighton educated a generation of Americans about the Soviets' operations and operatives.
If the president lacks the time to read either Taheri's or Lowry's/Korman's books, then perhaps his staff will arrange for a White House screening of The Stoning of Soraya M.,
