IN THE LATEST EDITION of the New Yorker, Seymour Hersh returns to one of his favorite themes: The Bush administration is preparing for war with Iran. Well, that is, may be preparing for war with Iran.
Anyone familiar with Hersh's writing these last couple of years knows that he has been fixated on claims from anonymous spooks and foreign policy luminaries concerning the Bush administration's supposed dastardly designs on Iran. His latest piece does not disappoint. Former and anonymous CIA officials opine on the Bush administration's gameplan for attacking Iran.
The Weekly Standard discusses his history of this theory.
I can't complain too much, since I've thought that an attack was imminent on many occasions over the last several years. Nobody is leaking "inside" information to me, of course (the Rove Newsletter is purely open source).
The difference is I see Iran as a threat while Hersh sees Iran as a potential victim.
But as I've written, both Hersh and I are seeing perhaps what our government wants us to see in order to put pressure on Iran. And Hersh, who hates our government, is a source the Iranians will believe.
Hersh may be an idiot, but he could be a useful one whose service to our country would surely give him heartburn if he suspected. Now that's a government conspiracy worthy of The New Yorker.
