I love Hersh's work, and especially when I see him on an interview show. He calls out Bush on all those things we Alternet posters love to point out....the hypocrisy, the denial of reality, the warmaking machine, profiteering, lies, etc. We need more of him and his ilk out there poking around. I especially loved his dissing of the NYT, his old employer, as they became a conduit to 'catapult the propaganda', and Judith Miller went from reporter to White House stenographer. God Bless Seymour Hersh.

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Seymour Hersh is probably the best investigative reporter in the world. As bad off as we are in getting hard news about the Middle East, just think how much worse we would be without people like Seymour Hersh.

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Which is par for the course with all the readers here. Sy has been known to add lots of spin to his reporting. Not to mention mistruths, lies and making stuff up. But that's ok as long as he bashes Bush. Right?

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...since realiizing that since he has been president, he hasn't done one good thing. Not one. Please tell me one. Cheney is even worse--being more powerful and more mean-spirited. It was, some may recall, Cheney's first assignment as newly-appointed VP, to ascertain the readiness of the US to thwart terrorist attack. He built a bomb shelter for himself.

Some German woman, a politician who was around when Hitler came to power, pointed out the similarities of Bush to Adolph. We forced her (and Germany) to apologize. She was never heard from again. So keep it up Sy.

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In light of the present politics in America, the best stratigy to keep our presence in Iraq is to expand the conflict. Once it is expanded to the point that other powers get involved on both sides, we will not be able to leave even if all repuglicans are voted out of office.
It is using the same logic Ronald Reagan used to change American social programs. Bankrupt the country to the point we can't afford them. Scorched earth economics is what has been used for the last 27 yrs. Now the same policy is going to be done with foreign policy. Some one please, explain to me how we are not going to be damned.

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Hersh: ... I have this theory in life that there is no learning. There is no learning curve. Everything is tabula rasa. Everybody has to discover things for themselves.

This Tabula Rasa theory only applies to people who were raised by pedagogic tyrants, e.g., religious zealots. It is impossible to learn any wisdom in a fear-ridden environment. Wise and loving parents and guardians pass on their love and wisdom to their children, just as ignorant and violent parents pass on their ignorance and fear to their children.

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The reason they always put out Hitler analogies is so that when the next Hitler really does show up, no one will heed the warnings because they're so cliche. But I think this current president is the closest thing we've ever had to another Hitler. Hitler didn't just "take over" Germany. It was handed to him by the elites who control the elections. Of all the other quasi-Hitlers that have come and gone, none have had as similar financial support structures and propaganda machines. And that, imo, is what made Hitler Hitler! Others like Stalin and Mao have been bigger killers but they didnt have Joseph Goebbels or Karl Rove and a whole onslaught of influential talking heads (and think tanks) to back them up....

I don't think Bush has killed as many as Hitler.... but of course it takes a while for things like debt, DU, and blowback to take their toll... Bush may think only 30,000 Iraqis have died but history will be forced to eventually accept the real numbers. Regardless of how many Americans die due to his policies, the destruction to America will be NO less than the destruction Hitler brought upon the german people for being stupid enough to follow him. We allowed at trillions more to be transferred from the middle class to the elite wealthy. And that's above and beyond the shearing we took when Clinton was in office. lol. It is going to take a few more years to feel the brunt of that, but we will feel it. I wonder if people will study history after they lose their homes, their jobs, and their obsessions with meaningless sideshow bs.... from The Colosseum to American Idol, Tabula Rasa indeed.

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Mahdi al Sadr called for a halt of offensive action from his Sadr Brigade for six months about four weeks ago. I would guess that a decrease in violence would encourage the US occupiers to withdraw soon. We have had fewer attacks against US troops since then, so bring them home, Bush. How can I not become cynical and incredulous with the the US government when it seems all of their accomplishments are destructive. If Bush had made it abundantly clear right after 9/11, that there would be no more violence and that we will work out our differences with whomever we have offended and that we were going to try nurturing as a tactic toward everlasting peace, and then did it, he would be viewed much differently than he is today.

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Seymour Hersch "But if it were Kissinger this time around, I'd actually be relieved because I'd know that the madness would be tied to some oil deal. But in this case, what you see is what you get. This guy (G W Bush) believes he's doing God's work."

All part of God=George W Bush's Plan....

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and voted for Bush (carried 62% of white male vote in '04)?

As long as white male keep voting for conservatives, progressives have no chance.

But I don't get it why white male (including college educated) vote for conservatives?

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Bush has employed "Ethnic Cleansing" in New Orleans so why not Iraq..?

Get with the program brother..he's a fucking racist fascist swine just like his grandpa..

If you want get your guts in a knot watch this video from Brasscheck TV..

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/168.html

Rove and Gonzales's criminal voter fraud..2004..

Write about this please Mr. Hersh..!

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God, if only someone in Congress would listen to Sy Hersh! Better yet, if only Hersh would run for Congress!

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As much as I like Hersh I think his passion over run his mouth on this one.

“I think he now understands that ethnic cleansing is what is going to happen. You're going to have a Kurdistan. You're going to have a Sunni area that we're going to have to support forever. And you're going to have the Shiites in the South.”

This is exactly what is not going to happen in Iraq. While the Islamic belief in the law of retaliation is alive a well in Iraq, most Iraqi honor the law and believe that anything beyond an eye for an eye offends God. Pay back is a bitch unfortunately. The Bush administration needs the perception of ethnic cleansing to justify the continued occupation. The administration has promoted the divisions in Iraq from day one because it serves their purpose. I hope the status quo ho does not fool the people with the “we broke it we have to fix it” justification to continue the occupation. The strongest Shia militias are nationalists and will not hesitate to do battle with the Iranian Shia militias in the south. Withdraw and give the nationalists the oil card and the Iraqi people will take care of the Iraqi. Iran will not interfere because they have already won, there is know standing army of an enemy on their border.

“This guy believes he's doing God's work.” I heard some of Ahmadinejad speech at the UN. I know you progressives will not appreciate this but I heard the words of God come out of his mouth. Two or three billion other people did also. I do not know if he is a deceiver, only God knows the secrets of his heart. I have never heard the words of God come out of the mouth of that pagan born-again Bush.

If you believe in silver linings, the invasion of Iraq has done more for peace in the Middle East and global peace than anyone can imagine. However, the occupation is just killing it.

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"Spiegel Online: So what are the options in Iraq?

Hersh: There are two very clear options: Option A) Get everybody out by midnight tonight. Option B) Get everybody out by midnight tomorrow. The fuel that keeps the war going is us."

The only way that could have been better said is for it to have been uttered by the Commander in Chief himself in Announcing his Resignation from Office.

In spite of that, and this was obviously a time/space constrained article, why did Hersh miss these opportunities:

"Spiegel Online: ...How much does the West really know about the nuclear program in Iran?

Seymour Hersh: A lot..." : True! The US assisted Iran in launching their nuclear program back in the '70's, and have allowed IAEA Inspections consistently and are a Signatory to the NPT for over 30 years. They are in Compliance with All International Laws on nuclear energy development unlike Israel, India Pakistan and others.

The next three questions are the same, but Hersh avoids the answer of greatest import:

"Spiegel Online: Is this just another case of exaggerating the danger in preparation for an invasion like we saw in 2002 and 2003 prior to the Iraq War?... and;
"Where does this feeling of urgency that the US has with Iran come from?... and;
"What interest does the White House have in moving us to the brink with Tehran?"

This is not like Hitler, Khruschev, Mao or Stalin, it is one component of the Bush administration's PNAC plan for "Regional Hegemony", "Military Dominance", "Energy Control" and "Global Currency", a tyrannical plan which connects and informs every decision of the past 6 years in the WH. This is described as a "Cabal" because it operates in secret, employs Fear-Based Psy-Ops/Propaganda through "consolidated control" of the Press, and remain super-connected to the Financial Wind-Falls of their own Policies. The difference is that it is growing out of our own USA with the largest military-industrial complex in history with some 750 bases all over the world, and simultaneously owns a huge percentage of global media... Hitler, the USSR, others could have only dreamed!

Hersh's, "There is no learning curve" reasoning is Propagandistic BS, period. Change may be slow, but it is also inevitable and intrinsic to humanity and nature. It filters out self-destructive tendencies of the past while nurturing the seeds of longevity and abundance for the future. We're living in a sort of contemporary "Dark Ages", and it is not possible that this will last hundreds of years absent a global holocaust, all "globalists" fall by their own greed.

Hersh blows it here:

"Spiegel Online: Even after Iraq? Aren't there strategic reasons for getting so deeply involved in the Middle East?

Hersh: Oh no...(W) believes he's doing God's work."

Sorry, but this is a credibility loser: Bush is about as religious as my tennis shoe. No one with "religious conviction in their heart" can Lie, Corrupt, and Bomb Innocent Women and Children and Stonewall Every Investigation and Accountability regarding the Huge Crimes , Dozens of Huge Crimes surrounding Bush (911, Enron, Haliburton, Iraq etc.,)... he has no conscience, and has nothing in common with any religious or spiritual thought, practice or order known to man. Notably, the war-deity in chief, Billy Graham, who has cheered on every war-president of the past 50 years was Bush's "salvation". Indeed, Graham invariably taught Bush to shut up and do as he is told, maintain the "order" of the Elite, and be "Blessed" with Immunity, I mean Forgiveness.

(cont.)

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That's right - since the Iraqi's won't get with the program, the U.S. government is now calling for the division of the country into three, in the hopes that they will no longer have to deal with any pesky local democratic opposition to the oil grab.

Hersch does an excellent job. Bush is a sock puppet, but he's a religiously motivated sock puppet.

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I hate the term "ethnic cleansing" - since when was killing people "cleansing"? Isn't that the term the Nazis used? Let's call it what it is, there is no euphemism for something so vile. On another note, I'm with Hersch on all except the oil part. Of COURSE Bush is after the oil. Maybe he thinks obtaining the oil is "god's work", but the oil was always the motivation.

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Killing or hating in the name of G-d, as is the habit of fundies of all faiths, is blasphemy and ignorant. G-d gives man free will or there would be no point to religion at all and no actual basis for judgement. No one was ever killed, tortured, exiled, or otherwise harmed others by G-d's will, only by man's. Human beings ignorantly harm others in the name of G-d and then attribute it to HIS will when it is only the petty will of man. G-d demands that people treat one another with love and respect. It's in the Ten Commandments if you have any questions about it. Never think that G-d has mandated War or man's inhumanity to man. That is all the preserve of people for which those responsible will be severely punished no matter who they are or what they believe.

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The great powers, primarily the US, seem to need a war every decade prosecuted either directly or by proxy. Iraq’s war on Iran, unleashed in 1980, opened an important market for the American and European arms, ammunitions and other means of war. A decade later, there was a full invasion of Iraq in 1991 because it had occupied Kuwait after having been reportedly misled into it. Another ten years and Afghanistan was attacked and occupied followed only two years later by the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The pace had quickened. Israelis assaulted Lebanon in August last year. Now, the rumblings of a thunder, building up around Iran, is audible.

The rhythm reminds one of the days of European colonial expansion when Asian and African states and territories fell with predictable regularity. However, the reasons for the wars of the two epochs are different. Earlier, territories were sought for settlement, for markets or for their raw materials and, in case of Africa, also as a source of servile labour power. Modern Third World still provides markets and raw materials, subject now to unequal exchange with the First World.

But what drives capitalist centre to war is over-production in its economies. In short, capitalism, the only true revolution in history, has not been able, up to now, to overcome the malaise at its heart. Its search for profit, which has brought the mankind or at least some part of it from barbarism to civilisation, is still a source of instability to the system itself.

Capitalism was always characterised by slumps and booms. There were periodic booms followed by crashes when a large portion of the productive apparatus ceased to be useful and was discarded. A part of the bourgeoisie was also wiped out financially in each crash. The next phase of the cycle started from high unemployment, low wages and available investment funds. The economy started to climb again until it approached anew the stage of high employment, high wages and over-accumulation and a new slump.

Since the Second World War, crashes have been outlawed, at least in the advanced capitalist states or the capitalist centre, by means of a permanent state of re-armament. As a result, capitalism’s problem of inherent instability is sought to be solved not in the workshops but on the battlefields. The periodic wholesale discarding of the instruments of production is replaced by the periodic spasmodic use and discarding of the means of destruction, so the process of investment can be re-launched. Thus capitalism seems to need a war every ten years.

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Up till now, Bush did not want Iraq split up. Now, they will embrace it in looking for an exit strategy. Bush had wanted a single Iraq, because that way, the USA just has one government to manipulate and boss around. Now, the Repubs. know 2008 will be down the tubes in the Presidential election if they do not get something done on Iraq. So, the unthinkable, partitioning, has become the thinkable. That is also why you see all the sabre rattling with Iran. Bush knows a chunk of Iraq may fold into Iran. Of course, another chunk could become part of Saudi Arabia, but, since the Saudies are American "buds," the USA is not too concerned about that. They are however worried about Iran, so Bush wants to "butter them up" with the thought of American Power before any partitioning. Don't kid yourself about what this is all about. It's not about Iranian nukes at all. The USA and CIA know darn well the Iranians are probably 20 years away. However, what they do know they cannot say publicly. That Iraq is going away as a country, and the USA is going to threaten Iran with Armageddon if she dares to think about annexing part of old Iraq. Even if that is what Iraqi's themselves may want.

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America needs to grow up and stop clinging to the myth of Christianity.

If Jesus Christ ever lived, he wasted his life banging his head against the sociopathic status quo of his time, that still exists today, with his verbal rantings and ravings against The System.

Actions speak louder than words.

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anyone who knows anything about God knows that he's not the one whispering in George's ear. It's the guy in the red suit with the horns and the pitchfork. George is confused.

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