Who Wants to Bomb Iran? Dems, not the GOP, says Seymour Hersh

When George Bush and Dick Cheney talk about their plans to bomb Iran, they are told "You can't do it, because every Republican is going to be defeated"--that's what a Republican former intelligence official told legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. "But," the former official went on, "Cheney doesn't give a rat's ass about the Republican worries, and neither does the President."

I recently spoke with Hersh, whose new piece, "Target Iran," is featured in The New Yorker this week.

When I asked Hersh who wants to bomb Iran, he said "Ironically there is a lot of pressure coming from Democrats. Hillary Clinton, Obama, and Edwards have all said we cannot have a nuclear-armed Iran. Clearly the pressure from Democrats is a reflection of – we might as well say it – Israeli and Jewish input." He added the obvious: "a lot of money comes to the Democratic campaigns" from Jewish contributors.

But while Democrats argue that we must "do something" about an Iranian nuclear threat, Hersh says the White House has concluded their own effort to convince Americans that Iran poses an imminent threat has "failed." Apparently the public that bought the story of WMD in Iraq is now singing the classic Who song, "Won't be Fooled Again."

Moreover, Hersh reports, "the general consensus of the American intelligence community is that Iran is at least five years away from obtaining a bomb" – so the public is right to be skeptical.

As a result, according to Hersh, the focus of the plans to bomb Iran has shifted from an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities to an emphasis on the famed "surgical strikes" on Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities in Tehran and elsewhere. The White House hopes it can win public support for this kind of campaign by arguing that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is responsible for the deaths of Americans in Iraq.

Why don't Bush and Cheney "give a rat's ass" about getting Republicans reelected to the Senate and the House in 2008? "Of course that was hyperbole to make a point," Hersh said. "When it comes to choice between bombing Iran and taking some political heat, the president will do what he wants. Look, no decision has been made, no order has been given, I've never said it's going to happen. But I had breakfast this morning in Washington with somebody who's close to a lot of military people, and there's a sense among them that the president is essentially messianic about this. He sees this as his mission. It could be because God is telling him to do it. It could be because his daddy didn't do it. It could be because it's step 13 in a 12-step program he was in. I just don't know."

The biggest problem in US relations with Iran, Hersh said, is that Bush refuses to "talk to people he doesn't like. . . . We dealt with China, we dealt with the Soviet Union in those bad days of Stalin and Mao. But there is no pressure whatsoever" coming from the leading Democratic presidential candidates demanding that Bush negotiate with the Iranians rather than bombing them.

Comments (36)

1. well...nobody can ultimately pressure him...

   and obama has indeed said time and again...lets negotiate...

   i detest anti-semitism (it is evil), but this mindless "use-the-power-of-the-usa-as-the-hammer-of-israel" is going to result in an ugly anti-semitic eventually...

   aipac and the american likud are behaving arrogantly foolish

   foolish foolish foolish...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 10/05/2007 @ 12:48pm

2. anti-semitic reaction, that is...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 10/05/2007 @ 12:49pm

3. Look, I'm sorry, but as one of our right-wing posters once posted...

   hasn't Seymour Hersh been claiming we were on the verge of attacking Iran since....2005?

   Posted by Mask at 10/05/2007 @ 1:09pm

4. Posted by MASK 10/05/2007 @ 1:09

   yeah...i cant see any rational reason to do so. it would be reckless and disasterous...

   we would never do soething so irrational, reckl...oh...wait...

   hee hee...

   i still dont...think...so...

   but not sure

   bushclintonbushclinton is aipac's beeeotch...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 10/05/2007 @ 1:18pm

5. i can't believe it's come to this, but IMHO it'll take a miracle - some kind of holy intervention - to stop these Armageddonists from going after Iran.

   really, Melville predicted all of this in M. Dick, written back in the 1850s: a mad 'Captain Ahab' leading his ship & crew on a wild, veangeful, contemptuous, uncaring, irrational & ultimately self-suicidal hunt & attack of the 'Great White Whale'... or in Bush's & Cheney's case - the war on "terror", or "evil", or "Islamofascists", or "whatever". this, despite the protestations of just about his entire crew. Captain Ahab had a single purpose - pursuit of the White Whale, none other - and nothing, not a single thing, could stop him from his suicidal mission, in the end taking the whole ship & crew down with him.

   Melville had only Ishmael surviving. whether he was prescient that only the "sons & daughters of Ishmael" shall survive this shipwreck, we shall see. i don't really buy that. but then again, i'm not the predictor of the future, Melville is.

   Posted by Scrub at 10/05/2007 @ 1:21pm

6. As I read the Mearsheimer/Walt book I begin to wonder if things won't be even worse if the Democrats win the white house. They are even more beholden to the Zionists than the Republicans. Bush 41 had the reputation of being cool towards Israel. He must wonder how Dubya got into the clutches of the Zionists

   Posted by torquemada at 10/05/2007 @ 2:24pm

7. Look, I'm sorry, but as one of our right-wing posters once posted...

   hasn't Seymour Hersh been claiming we were on the verge of attacking Iran since....2005?

   Posted by MASK 10/05/2007 @ 1:09pm

   I THINK PART OF HERSH'S IDEA...

   In "outing" supposed Bush/Cheney plans for bombing Iran like this is exactly what has happened. The public reaction to the disclosure of these plans is evidently at least causing a change of plans from bombing Iranian nuclear facilities to bombing Iranian terrorist facilities.

   By now outing THIS idea, I think Hersh hopes that public reaction will scotch this plan as well. So it may well be that Hersh's whole idea is to create self-NON-fulfilling prophecies....

   Posted by w_m_bear at 10/05/2007 @ 2:35pm

8. I ALSO THINK THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES ARE COMPLETE IDIOTS...

   To the extent to which they've "bought into" (as they apparently have done) the whole neocon fallacious rhetoric about Iran being a nuclear threat. It does make you wonder about their basic smarts.

   And to repeat and repeat and repeat. Criticism of the current reactionary Israeli government and the Israeli lobby in the U.S., to wit, AIPAC, is NOT anti-semitic. (WHY is this hard???....)

   Posted by w_m_bear at 10/05/2007 @ 2:40pm

9. w.m. bear - that may be hersch's intentions - though, having followed seymour's career for a long time now, i seriously doubt it; he knows what he's up against - but does public disclosure, in the end, really matter?

   has "public disclosure" of blackwater, the govt's response to katrina, torture in guantanamo, etc., stopped any of that?

   'white noise' isn't enough to stop these guys. just makes them act with more bravado...

   Posted by Scrub at 10/05/2007 @ 2:44pm

10. I generally, based on all the information I have, agree 100% with Seymour Hersh on the Democrats, American Jewish power, the Israel Lobby, and Iran/Middle East foreign policy. We've been fighting Israel's battles for too long, I think. Israel needs to find its home amongst its neighbors, not as an extension of US interest in the region.

    Posted by ZERO 10/05/2007 @ 2:22pm

    AGREED. AND I'VE READ...

    That in Congress, Israel is genially referred to as "the 51st state." Evidently, this is more than just a kind of insider bon mot. (And I did mean "genially" not "generally"!)

    Posted by w_m_bear at 10/05/2007 @ 2:45pm

11. Posted by W_M_BEAR 10/05/2007 @ 2:35pm

    But BEAR, he's been doing it for TWO YEARS. It's like the Millerites (precursors to the Seventh Day Adventists), predicting the End of the World on August 15th, 1842 and it passes and they bump it to 1843, then 1844. (Not exactly what happened but close)

    And then, as you said, Hersh claims in 2009 that if HE hadn't "outed" it, it WOULD have happened. I'm sure there's a term for that kind of "prophecy".

    Posted by Mask at 10/05/2007 @ 2:47pm

12. Its not just that democrats have an affiliation with the Jewish lobby, though unquestionably the Jewish vote has substantial weight in the democratic party. The larger issue is that the public perceives the democrats to be weak on defense. As a result, democratic leaders have a real tendency to overcompensate and endorse strong military action - even when its not well thought out. This is also the real reason why Clinton and Edwards as well as dozens of other democrats initially supported the attack of Iraq - they feared being cast as weak on defense.

    Posted by noparty at 10/05/2007 @ 2:53pm

13. Posted by SCRUB 10/05/2007 @ 2:44pm

    APPARENTLY, PUBLIC DISCLOSURE ***DOES*** MATTER...

    Since, evidently, Bush/Cheney HAVE (at least for the nonce) abandoned or, at any rate, postponed their plans to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, at least in part because public opinion polls showed little support for and a lot of opposition to, this course of action. (One does hope that at least some consideration was also given to other factors, such as the unpredictable and likely disasterous blowback....)

    I can't, of course, read Seymour Hersh's mind but it does seem to me that he is intent on "doing what he can" to prevent the U.S. from bombing Iran. And that happens to be to reveal to the public as much as he can find out about the plans to do so. Reading Hersh's New Yorker articles on the subject (and I too have read them all), it's hard to conceive some other motive for choosing this particular subject to write about....

    Posted by w_m_bear at 10/05/2007 @ 2:54pm

14. Posted by MASK 10/05/2007 @ 2:47pm

    IT'S FUNNY...

    Because the analogy of failed end-of-the-world prophecies occurred to me too. Hah! So maybe these are cooked actually to WARD OFF the end of the world! Hence a "self-NON-fulfilling prophecy." Which would mean that God thinks like Bush/Cheney (gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....

    Posted by w_m_bear at 10/05/2007 @ 3:01pm

15. w.m. bear - well, maybe - emphasis on maybe - they're aiming their missiles at different targets now because of popular opinion, but my bet is it ain't going to keep them from doing what they set out to do years ago: bomb the crap out of the former Persia, for whatever reason.

    heck, if cheney willingly says they're not leaving office until they've "taken care of" the "iran problem", who am i not to believe him?

    i pray i'm wrong. i just don't believe i am.

    Posted by Scrub at 10/05/2007 @ 3:05pm

16. Sung to the tune of the Beachboys 'Barbara Anne',

    Ba ba ba, ba bomb Iran.......John McCain.

    Posted by FRANKGRITS 10/05/2007 @ 2:58pm

    YOU'VE GOT TO REALIZE...

    That the North Vietnamese basically had custody of McCain's brain for something like five years. That's a lot of time in which to do some serious mindfucking....

    Posted by w_m_bear at 10/05/2007 @ 3:06pm

17. Posted by IBBLEBLIBBLE 10/05/2007 @ 1:18pm

    there's a reason for the rhetoric.

    oil'n'money

    money'n'oil

    every time one side says

    grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

    the price of oil ups and ups.

    so the other side says

    grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

    and the oil keeps upping.

    houston -- happy.

    tehran -- happy.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 10/05/2007 @ 3:13pm

18. Hersh is an invaluable reporter on this issue, but I have to say that these comments about the Democrats are dangerously simplistic and revert to some ugly insinuations about Jews. I agree that the Democrats are alarmingly pro-war. But I don't think it is because of the reasons enumerated here. As Hersh's own reporting from only a few months ago demonstrated, the strategic gamble the U.S. has now entered into consists of backing Saudi Arabia and Wahabi radicals at all costs against Iran, which is closely allied with China and Russia. Israel, far from being the regional hegemon, is the "tip of the spear" or the "largest American aircraft carrier" in the world, in Madeleine Albright's words. That the U.S. is subordinate to Israel in its most central strategic choices seems to me highly implausible.

    Posted by William_Blake at 10/05/2007 @ 3:35pm

19. From Neocons to Neoliberals ... The War Party is alive and well !

    Naomi Klein shows how these people operate in 'Disaster Capitalism'.

    Norman Soloman laments our war culture in 'Made Love Got War'

    What this shows is the vast undercurrent that pushes our society towards War. The Military Industrial Complex , Eisenhower warned about , has taken control of our government , our media and our soul .

    Posted by mmckinl at 10/05/2007 @ 4:25pm

20. Posted by FRANKGRITS 10/05/2007

    It's rhetorical and it doesn't mean your soul isn't intact , it means that Americans , as a people have been co-opted through years of propaganda and obfuscation about "The War Party"

    Posted by mmckinl at 10/05/2007 @ 5:40pm

21. The Democratic base would hand any candidates their head if they voted to bomb Iran. I am not voting for the top three candidates. If they bombed Iran after the election, they should be impeached whatever their party affiliation. These people have a pocket book for a brain.

    Posted by P. J. Casey at 10/05/2007 @ 5:43pm

22. It's a shame on the Jewish state of Isreal and all Jews plus sympathizes who cruelly and mercilessly kill Palistinians; i was very sympathetical to the victims of the Holocaust but now the Jewish state of Isreal and those American Jewish defenders (propagandists) who practice and support the practice of genocide on the defensless Palitinians makes me want to vomit. Denial is a Freudian defense and if it did not exit a lot of Jews would .....

    Posted by dan gillespie at 10/05/2007 @ 6:45pm

23. zero you've hit it on the head.

    it's funny, we're not even supporting the majority of the israelis with our wacko positions, but the right wing, largely fringe (except for our support of it), part of it.

    the madness never ends...

    Posted by Scrub at 10/05/2007 @ 6:48pm

24. And now the anti-Israel Lyndon LaRouche Crowd (ZERO) leads into the DAN GILLESPIE anti-Semitism.

    Oh and before anybody or DAN accuse me of "false charges of anti-Semitism"...re-read his posts. It's 30% "Israel" and 70% "JEW". Sorry, even by the most AIPAC-hating rhetorical count...that's anti-Semitism!

    Posted by Mask at 10/05/2007 @ 9:20pm

25. I read Hersh's article and nowhere in it does he say it is NOT the Repubes who want war.

    This is lying bullshit by this jew author Wiener. Yes, the Dems go down, too. And not just because of deep pockets NY Judases. They framed Hillary Clinton with that phoney "F---ing Jew Bastard" line during the Senate race --- remember that?

    And she took it. So anything that might hint of less that 110% supporst of the Zionist entity and ...walla! she gets hammared with the "F..-ing Jew Bastard" line again. "She's muttering 'You Fucking Jew bastard' under her breath while she stabs Israel in the back."

    These people have to be victims. Abusive people passing themselves off as victims. Those who do not renounce what "Zionist Jew" stands for must be presumed to stand with them. Anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-human.

    This political system has been killed by the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, same disease that is destroying the bee hives. Little worker bees now just go off and die. A 21 yr old boy in our area stabbed himself to death in the chest whlle driving a car. It ran into a tree. Now he's gone, but they live on.

    Posted by jones at 10/05/2007 @ 11:30pm

26. Hillary is one leading the charge to war. And the public is opposed but who do they want? Hillary.

    Wake up, folks.

    Posted by neaguy at 10/06/2007 @ 12:52am

27. The Power of the Israel Lobby needs to be limited or American is doomed. I agree with Mr. Hersh. Beyonce Welch ( aka proudleftists ) - An African American Woman Who Detests War & Hate.

    Posted by proudleftists at 10/06/2007 @ 04:10am

28. "Things are rarely as simple as they seem...but most of the time, they are." This probably applies to Iran, and Frosty's simple, but utterly irrefuteable statement.

    It's about the oil.

    The price, that is.

    Perversely, the higher oil goes in price, the more is at stake if supplies are interrupted by a war, or a blockade of the Persian Gulf, so Mr. I'mintojihad is free to take ever more provocative actions. The great game goes on. Only the players change, but the stakes are always the same: Power.

    And oil at $80 per barrel can buy a lot of it for those who control it.

    Posted by davebarlett at 10/06/2007 @ 3:26pm

29. Posted by DAVEBARLETT 10/06/2007 @ 3:26pm

    yep.

    they've just got to walk that fine line between gouging and stifling the economy.

    the dangerous part is when the rhetorical falsehoods have been repeated often enough to become truthy.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 10/06/2007 @ 4:47pm

30. Posted by MARKCANYON 10/06/2007 @ 03:56am

    You have got to be kidding. I hope Rese likes company.

    (I didn't even ignore Barely25). Click.

    Posted by Malcontent at 10/06/2007 @ 11:05pm

31. Posted by MARKCANYON 10/06/2007 @ 03:56am | ignore this person

    Posted by frosty zoom at 10/07/2007 @ 02:47am

32. Canyon - Jews, Judaism & the Jewish Faith have provided an incomparable service to the World Community through their people, faith, culture (& contributions thereon to), their contributions to the arts, their prophets & their everything else. sure, there are a few bad apples, but every nation, tribe, tongue & history has them. the Israeli State currently operates, ultimately, out of fear. this won't always be so. the enormous and invaluable contributions of the Jewish People shall continue, God willing, forever. so with the Palestinian People, and all the rest. for what it's worth to you, it says so in the Bible (Old & New) & the Book. we shall all live free together.

    don't let your political & religious hatred turn personal and get ugly, and get in the way of your love - the love you literally feel for everything on earth, the Jewish People included - which, in the end, is everything. otherwise, your contributions to this mess will be no better than any other, and in fact, you might help tip the scales in unforgivable directions. you wouldn't be able to live with yourself were it to come to that - not that it will - and i figure from your post you think you're pretty alright, and there's nothing in the end wrong with that, unless it were not to be so.

    Posted by Taboo at 10/07/2007 @ 08:26am

33. Posted by MARKCANYON 10/07/2007 @ 1:37pm

    Posted by MARKCANYON 10/07/2007 @ 1:43pm

    Posted by MARKCANYON 10/07/2007 @ 1:48pm

    Could somebody please take this assholes thesaurus away from him and hand him a history book?

    Posted by Malcontent at 10/07/2007 @ 4:16pm

34. Jeez, and you wonder why Jews worry that all this criticism of the Israel Lobby (whether we agree with it or not) smacks of anti-semitism.

    Whether it's Mark Canyon or Zero (who's opposed to "overt" anti-semitism, but posts just about every anti-semitic caricature in the book about Jews, money, Hollywood) it doesn't take long to move from "Zionists" to plain old Jews and pointing out Jewish names.

    What about the fact that Jews are the most likely religious group to oppose the Iraq war per a Gallup Poll? That even Jewish Republicans are more likely to oppose the war than the general population according to the same polls? That Ariel Sharon told George Bush that attacking Iraq would be a big mistake? That Israeli govt officials furiously lobbied the U.S. against attacking Iraq?

    I don't know why I need to even post these facts. The anti-semites don't care. I guess it's interesting to see what kind of dirt is reading The Nation these days, though.

    Posted by danp at 10/08/2007 @ 8:28pm

35. Yeah "MarkCanyon" it's pretty clear what kind of "socialist" banner you talking about. Nazi filth.

    Posted by danp at 10/08/2007 @ 10:05pm

36. Listen Nazi, most people are not like you. Occasionally evil people like you are able to crawl out from under your rock and do some damage to humanity. But ultimately you will be slapped down again where you belong.

    You are not here to debate, only to spread your evil hate and lies like a coward from behind the safety of your internet pseudonym. So I am not interested in a sham debate with you. Good bye.

    Posted by danp at 10/10/2007 @ 6:18pm