TOWN HALL JOURNAL - SPRING 2007
Are “Faith-based” Analyses Hurting US Interests in Iraq and Iran?
Days before the midterm elections that changed the discourse on Iraq, Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector and author of the books Iraq Confidential and Target Iran, discussed the war in Iraq and a possible future military campaign in Iran. The breakfast program on November 3, 2006 was part of Town Hall’s Author Series featuring newsworthy writers talking about their latest works.
An early critic of the Iraq war, Ritter used the term “faith-based” not to describe flaws he sees in President Bush’s analysis as somehow religious in nature, but rather to distinguish that analysis from a more objective, “fact-based” examination.
“Iraq is a direct result of a faith-based analysis,” Ritter argued. “One only needs to examine the case for war made by the Bush administration and compare and contrast that case with the reality that has emerged. The Bush administration didn’t get it partially wrong. They got it all wrong. There wasn’t one aspect of their pre-war analysis of Iraq that is proven to be correct.”
Relying on his first-hand knowledge of the country derived through seven years as a chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Ritter disputed the administration’s pre-war assertion that there was no doubt Saddam Hussein was pursuing weapons of mass destruction. Ritter insisted there was little if any evidence to support this view.
Ritter expressed incredulity that after all the failures in Iraq, the Bush administration is raising the specter of nuclear weapons in Iran in an effort to bolster support for a military effort there. His latest book, Target Iran, details the author’s assessment of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, and his perception that, as he told the Town Hall audience, “We are continuing the same faith-based approach to describing Iran and assessing Iran that failed us so horrifically in Iraq.”
The administration’s efforts, however, combined with ineffectual reporting by the media, have skewed the public’s perception of Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities, according to Ritter, who claimed a poll would reveal up to 70 percent of Americans believe Iran has a nuclear weapons program.
“Iran does not possess a demonstrable nuclear weapons program,” Ritter stated. “That’s fact-based analysis, not faith-based analysis. Yet we were also told 16 times in the March 2006 National Security Strategy of the United States that Iran constitutes the greatest threat to the national security to the United States today…the international inspectors say there’s no evidence to support it.
“The Bush administration, despite all its mistakes in Iraq,” continued Ritter, “…is determined to remove the regime in Tehran through the unilateral application of military force.”
