The assertion by a leading American journalist that US Special Forces have been operating inside Iran is startling and, if true, utterly reprehensible. Seymour Hersh, a reporter with a track record of breaking sensational and accurate stories, alleges that Washington has been conducting covert operations in Iran for over six months, marking potential targets in the event of a US attack. Equally alarming, Hersh claims that President Bush has authorized such secret operations against ten countries in the Middle East and Asia.
He further alleges that the US military is being used as a way of sidestepping legislation which forbids the CIA from conducting illegal operations abroad. All revelations concerning the clandestine work of espionage and Special Forces should carry a health warning. Washington is not beneath releasing “disinformation” designed to alarm other powers and perhaps persuade them to be more amenable. It is intervention on the cheap and at no real risk for either spies or elite troops.
On the other hand, if this is disinformation, Iran is not going to react to such bullying in the way that the White House might wish. All the evidence so far is that the Iranians and their government in their anger will be less, rather than more, open to US influence. Last month in an article, Hersh warned that Iran was the next country in George W. Bush’s sights, in part because of Washington’s belief that the country is rushing to develop nuclear weapons. The Iranian government immediately vowed to defend its nuclear installations which it continues to insist are entirely for peaceful purposes.
From a strategic point of view, it is hard to imagine how President Bush could even be contemplating another half-baked military adventure. A great part of the US armed forces is bogged down in Iraq, clearly lacking the power and imagination to counter the resistance to the brutal US occupation. Maybe Bush imagines that he can use cruise missiles and stealth bombers to bomb the Tehran government into compliance with his wishes. The Hersh allegations have been firmly denied in Washington. It would be good to believe that this rebuttal is true. Unfortunately, whether Hersh is right or not, what he has been told by some high-placed Washington source unfortunately chimes very well with the gung-ho, aggressive nature of the Bush White House. The administration is clearly embarrassed by the story because even if it is not true, it rings true.
The article may, however, prompt one important reaction. The American public, who are seeing the flow of their tax dollars into Iraq crossing a flow of US dead and wounded out of the country could finally be moved to cry ‘Halt’ ! to their president’s bellicose solutions to geopolitical challenges. American voters may have supported his Iraq policy or folly, but their views may be very different if they realize that they are being manoeuvred into yet another aggressive military adventure. Even the bland American certainty that they are doing the tough but right thing in the world, may waver in the face of a new conflict. It might even cause the US public finally to reassess the consequences of the invasion and occupation of Iraq and see it for the disastrous blunder that it is.
