Glove Does Not Fit, Must Acquit
Sy Hersh launches pre-emptive “Bush lies people will die” strike vs. campaign on Iran. New Yorker’s “Shifting Targets“ suggests the developing case for striking Iran is a cynical Bush ploy … excuse me, make that a cynical Cheney ploy … to bomb the daylights out of Iran just because, maybe as a last hurrah, rather than something that perhaps represents … a developing case for striking Iran.
Hersh’s latest steaming pile seeks to debunk the notion of Iran as a threat to stability in Iraq, the region and the world, as Hersh plays geopolitical Johnny Cochran for the defense:
Iranian nukes, after all, are five years away. Maybe two, we learn later. Terrorism-supporting nation must be engaged diplomatically. Hersh buries deep, under layers of rush-to-war, U.S. mendaciousness, miscalculation and over-reaction claims, the fact that France and most of Europe believe Iran is a serious nuclear threat, just as they did with Saddam, and follows it quickly with a lot of IAEA and Blix dismissals … it’ll be years before the Iranians have nukes. Plenty of time to jabber meaninglessly! Don’t fire till you see the glow of their mushroom cloud!
As usual, in his effort to poke holes in it, Hersh actually does a fair job laying out the case for whacking the mullahs. Active nuke program 2-5 years from blast. Support for terrorists throughout the region. Illegal seizure and humiliation of foreign nationals. Fears of Iranian domination of region. Iranian arms popping up everywhere. Hersh’s main argument seems to be, given that Bush lied people died, the Iranian regime should be assumed to be a reasonable and peace-loving mob of Jew-baiting, terrorism-supporting, nuke-lusting Islamic end-timers.
A couple of curious issues. Hersh goes to some length to argue that Iraq has long been Iran’s playground, and that Iran kept a lid on Shiite violence there in the first couple years of the war. When there follows an explosion of Shiite violence with weapons of Iranian origin, however, it is irresponsible to assume Iran has anything to do with that. Iran, the benign neighbor, is only interested in trade. I particularly enjoyed this for David Kay, former Iraq weapons inspector:
“When the White House started its anti-Iran campaign, six months ago, I thought it was all craziness. Now it does look like there is some selective smuggling by Iran, but much of it has been in response to American pressure and American threats—more a ‘shot across the bow’ sort of thing, to let Washington know that it was not going to get away with its threats so freely.”
Crazy, to think Iran might be involved in murderous meddling! Damned Americans have forced them to do this. More from Kay:
“Iran is not giving the Iraqis the good stuff—the anti-aircraft missiles that can shoot down American planes and its advanced anti-tank weapons.”
Hold on, David Kay! It looks like American threats have compelled the peaceful traders of Iran to engage further “shot across the bow” sorts of things.
The whole thing ends rather abruptly … after noting that a SAM SA7 of suspected but unproven Iranian origin was fired at a C-130 in Afghanistan … without making any kind of conclusions, simply the suggestion that the whole Iran affair is, to borrow a phrase from the senior senator from Massachusetts, a plot cooked up in Texas.
Topics: Iran
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:55 am on Tuesday, October 2, 2007
2 Responses to “Glove Does Not Fit, Must Acquit”
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October 2nd, 2007 at 10:46 am
Seymore (Butts) Hersh and the New Yorker. Wow. Talk about canonical authority.
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:17 am
Web Reconnaissance for 10/02/2007
A short recon of whats out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.