https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2006/03/12/iran-the-hitch-hitch/feed/PJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usWed, 10 Jun 2026 06:35:25 -0400<![CDATA[I have hesitated to comment on Christopher Hitchens&#8217; much discussed approach to the Iran problem because, uncharacteristically for me, I was mulling it over. Basically it&#8217;s &#8220;Nixon in China&#8221; revisited and depends on the premise that the mullahs are just corrupt, not crazy (so that the US President can go to Tehran and actually strike a deal with the Ayatollah). I wonder how Hitchens knows this. They are certainly corrupt, profiteering off everything from pistachios to oil, but I&#8217;m more than a little suspicious that a fair proportion of them take this Sharia stuff (and attendant apocalyptic mumbo-jumbo) more seriously than Hitchens wants to believe. It&#8217;s hard for us more secular Westerners to wrap our minds around that kind of faith, especially since our friends in Isfahan seem relatively modern beneath their veils and we ourselves know what it&#8217;s like to &#8220;believe&#8221; in Trotsky. But the latter comparison is inaccurate. Although Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung thought had it&#8217;s religious component to be sure, its basis was &#8220;scientific socialism.&#8221; It wasn&#8217;t meant to be accepted as blind faith, but to be proven. Islam, as practiced by the mullahs and their adherents, is toute autre chose.]]>Sun, 12 Mar 2006 14:23:41 -0500<![CDATA[Roger L. Simon]]>https://pjmedia.com/roger-l-simon/2006/03/12/iran-the-hitch-hitch-n211658