Steve Gilliard, 1964-2007
It is with tremendous sadness that we must convey
the news that Steve Gilliard, editor and publisher of The News Blog,
passed away June 2, 2007. He was 42.
To those who have come to trust
The News Blog and its insightful, brash and unapologetic editorial
tone, we have Steve to thank from the bottom of our hearts. Steve helped
lead many discussions that mattered to all of us, and he tackled subjects
and interest categories where others feared to tread.
Please keep Steve's friends and family in your
thoughts and prayers.
Steve meant so much to us.
We will miss him terribly.
photo by lindsay beyerstein
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Nikkos: "Why Sy Hersh is Wrong (just this once)"
Spot The Arab (by their style of doorway)
Thanks to NIKKOS who contributed this great piece on Sy Hersh - THANKS NIKKOS!
Hersh's latest piece in the New Yorker is as terrifying as usual. Among other things, it posits a shift (the "redirection" of the article's title) in the Bush administrations' strategy in the Middle East, specifically, an explicit decision to support Sunnis rather than Shia. If true, this would represent a stunning reversal in alliances, considering it was the virulently Sunni Al Qaeda that attacked the U.S. on 9/11 and that the U.S. is currently fighting a counter-insurgency war against Sunnis in support of the Shia Maliki government in Iraq. However, for anyone that's been watching the unfolding disaster which is the Bush administration, these sorts of vertigo-inducing paradoxes are par for the course.
As usual, it's hard to tell if these are acts of stupidity, strategy or desperation. The mind reels and grasps for a "logical" explanation, a narrative which can impose some semblance of order upon the chaos which Bush and his cronies seem to foment everywhere they traipse. And it is here where I think Hersh- or more accurately and fairly, his sources- get it wrong. They get it wrong because they seek to make to make sense out of what the Bush administration is doing, when there is, literally, no sense to be made of the situation. Or, to use a favorite phrase of the President, "in other words," what's going on here is not a rational re-alignment of alliances and interests in the pursuit of some rational goal- democracy, peace and stability in the Middle East, for instance. Rather, as has been amply documented, the Bush administration believes in "constructive chaos" in the Middle East; that is, the belief that, phoenix-like, a modern Middle East can emerge only from the flames of destruction. Therefore, conflict is to be embraced, not feared, for it is only through conflict that the Middle East can be reborn (though there may be some "pangs," as Condi pointed out).
When viewed in this context, then, Hersh's reporting makes more sense: it's not that we are switching sides; we're merely making sure both sides are properly armed and that as a whole, the region is left perpetually off-balance and unable to respond with any unity to the increasing hegemony of the United States. The increased tempo of this destabilization may in fact be part and parcel of an impending military strike against Iran- what better way to blunt a unified Middle Eastern response than to make sure the locals are busy fighting each other? Heck, it's just like in the good ol' days when we armed Saddam on the one hand and clandestinely armed the Iranians on the other. (Interestingly enough, Iran-Contra is back in the news, with reports that Negroponte stepped down from DNI in order to go to State precisely to avoid another Iran-Contra-like debacle which he saw brewing.)
So, yes, it IS a redirection- but not the kind Sy Hersh's sources envision.
- posted by NikkosLabels: Bush Iraq, Hersh, Negroponte, Shia, sunni
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