Can't Speak Truth to Power

The Daily Kos reports on an interview carried today on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer (blech), with Sy Hersh on his upcoming New Yorker article "Up in the Air".

I believe the phrase "Scared Silly" sufficiently describes my reaction. The interview describes Hersh's view of the next phase in the Iraq War, which according to Daily Kos "provides a little more details about the Bush administration's withdrawal proposal. During the interview, Mr. Hersh said that the Bush administration will probably withdraw US troops from the ground next year, but that won't mean that will be the beginning of the end of the war . . . ." Rather, Hersh thinks that the departing troops will be replaced by airpower, which raises a number of legitimate concerns for Air Force commanders. Hersh goes into some detail in the interview, which you should not miss.

Hersh also discusses the mental state of our "fearless" leader, which is literally the case, according to Hersh.

Hersh explains: Suffice to say this, that this president in private, at Camp David with his friends, the people that I'm sure call him George, is very serene about the war. He's upbeat. . . . He believes that he's doing the right thing, and he's not going to stop until he gets -- either until he's out of office, or he falls apart, or he wins.

Hersh continues: He's a utopian, you could say, in a world where maybe he doesn't have all the facts and all the information he needs and isn't able to change.

"I'll tell you, the people that talk to me now are essentially frightened because they're not sure how you get to this guy."

"We have generals that do not like -- anymore -- they're worried about speaking truth to power."

* * * *

BLITZER: Here's what you write. You write, "Current and former military and intelligence officials have told me that the president remains convinced that it is his personal mission to bring democracy to Iraq, and that he is impervious to political pressure, even from fellow Republicans. They also say that he disparages any information that conflicts with his view of how the war is proceeding."

Those are incredibly strong words, that the president basically doesn't want to hear alternative analysis of what is going on.

HERSH: You know, Wolf, there is people I've been talking to -- I've been a critic of the war very early in the New Yorker, and there were people talking to me in the last few months that have talked to me for four years that are suddenly saying something much more alarming.

They're beginning to talk about some of the things the president said to him about his feelings about manifest destiny, about a higher calling that he was talking about three, four years ago.

I don't want to sound like I'm off the wall here. But the issue is, is this president going to be capable of responding to reality? Is he going to be able -- is he going to be capable if he going to get a bad assessment, is he going to accept it as a bad assessment or is he simply going to see it as something else that is just a little bit in the way as he marches on in his crusade that may not be judged for 10 or 20 years. . . . How do you get to a guy to convince him that perhaps he's not going the right way?


Maybe scared silly isn't strong enough. How about terrified?


UPDATE: Seymour Hersh's article, Up In The Air, is now available on-line at The New Yorker.