Gadfly Sy: only two options

Where would we be without Seymour Hersh?

Here, the Globe and Mail pays attention to what Mr. Hersh says, at length. Why his comments aren't on page one of the Times and Post is another question worth pondering.

Of Fitzgerald, Hersh is, er, pretty optimistic: "He's going to save America.... Fitzgerald's going deep. He may just unravel the whole conspiracy."

But as for the bigger picture, maybe not so optimistic:

"We're so out of control," he says of the United States. "We have a colossus out of control. It's the end of the world, brought to you by the neocons."

This from a man who at the top of the interview was judged to be "in an upbeat mood. At least for him."

As for the United Nations interim report by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis on the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, it's no sale with Sy:

"[Mehlis] is relying on intercepts of an unnamed source inside the Iranian air force, someone without inside stuff. It's not empirical."

And echoing Juan Cole's excellent Bush Dunnit post earlier this month, Hersh wonders if the Prez is as dumb as everyone thinks:

Although Bush is sometimes seen as a political marionette, manipulated by unseen masters, Hersh isn't so sure. He recalls a Saturday Night Live skit from the Reagan years that portrayed the then-president as a doddering fool who, once the cameras were off and the doors closed, calls a National Security council meeting, starts speaking Chinese and gives a detailed assessment of strategic threats.

"So sometimes I wonder," says Hersh. In Toronto, he says, he will talk about responsibility and war crimes and "make the case that gets Bush in the middle of it. There is a case for the President's direct participation. It's not something that happened without his acquiescence. I'd like to think he knows what's going on."

In the meantime (Hersh is waiting to see if Fitzgerald drops more indictment bombs), "he's the sleeper, a true unassailable. The White House calls him Eliot Ness [the Prohibition-era federal agent whose team of 'Untouchables' helped bring down mobster Al Capone], not with affection, so I've heard."

Hersh predicts that "every day will get worse in Iraq. Another 30,000 Iraqis will die if we keep going. Fewer will die if we get out. There are only two options, as I see it: Pull out now or pull out tomorrow."

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