Sy Hersh: Syrian Facility Israel Bombed Not Nuclear.
We interrupt your regularly scheduled candidate war diaries with the following breaking news: It turns out that the facility that was bombed by the Israelis in Syria was not a nuclear facility as Israel, the Bush administration, the media, and virtually everyone else claimed at the time. It turns out that it was not even a chemical weapons facility, but that it was merely a conventional facility.
We already know that the target was a cache of 1990's missiles that North Korea had sent to Syria. We already know that Vice President Cheney was suspected of being behind leaks to the press alleging that it was a nuclear facility. And we know that the US and Israel were refusing to cooperate with the IAEA despite the allegations; it turns out that the IAEA found out that the facilities were not nuclear anyway.
As late as Sunday, newspapers were insisting that the facilities in question were nuclear. But Hersh tells the story:
Hersh writes in that article, "Whatever was under construction, with North Korean help, it apparently had little to do with agriculture -- or with nuclear reactors -- but much to do with Syria's defense posture, and its military relationship with North Korea. And that, perhaps, was enough to silence the Syrian government after the September 6th bombing."
"This is a wonderful sort of a complicated story," Hersh told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "Here Israel bombs another country, basically an act of war. ... They don't say anything publicly about it. The Israeli great ally, the United States, says nothing. Syria doesn't say much about it. They complain, but they're very muted too. ... Nobody talks about it."
In other words, these allegations tell us more about the makeup of the people who were peddling these allegations than they were with any legitimate case against either Syria or Iran. The fact of the matter is that the Bush administration has not changed; they will engage in crackpot conspiracy theories to further their agendas. This is why it is vitally important that we elect a government that will be reality-based and that will not conduct foreign policy based on crackpot conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality. Keep in mind that Iraq was started on the basis of a conspiracy theory hatched by the Bush administration.
Hersh believes that the bombings were partly politics, to show people that the Olmert government had more testerone than the Likudniks; the other reason was a warning shot at the Iranians. This is why, now more than ever, we need a president who will be able to calm things down and who will not allow the Middle East to spiral into a general conflict.
Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
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