David Ignatius: Iran & the U.S.

45:20

May 18, 2009

A military exhibition displays a Revolutionary Guard missile, the Shahab-3 missile, which is claimed to be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching Europe, Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East, seen under a picture of the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, on Tuesday Sept. 23, 2008. The display is to mark the 28th anniversary of the onset of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). (AP) — A Revolutionary Guard missile, the Shahab-3, claimed to be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching Europe, Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East, is displayed in Tehran on Sept. 23, 2008. Behind it is a picture of the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, (AP)

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius looks at it both ways. As fact, in his job following intelligence and foreign affairs for the Post. As fiction, in his second life as a writer of near-to-life spy thrillers.

In his latest, Ignatius imagines a full-lather American plunge toward war with Iran as intelligence operatives battle over whether Tehran is really on the brink of going nuclear, as in nuclear arms.

This hour, On Point: David Ignatius goes close to life in “The Increment.”

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David Ignatius is a columnist and associate editor at The Washington Post. He has covered the Middle East and the CIA for more than 25 years. His new novel, his seventh, is “The Increment.” His 2007 novel, “Body of Lies,” was made into a movie staring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.
Read the first chapter of "The Increment" (pdf).

This program aired on May 18, 2009.