Hersh: Cheney ‘Privately’ Says He Prefers U.S. — Not Israel — Strike Iran Because ‘We’ll Get Blamed Anyway’

Think Progress
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Earlier this week, in an article called “Preparing the Battlefield,” the New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh reported that late last year, “Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran.” On MSNBC today, Andrea Mitchell asked Hersh if the U.S. was “planning military action” against Iran or “planning to support Israeli military action?”

“Oh, you know, how the hell do I know,” replied Hersh. “What I can tell you is we’re loaded for bear. And we’ve been looking at it for three years.” He then said that Vice President Dick Cheney “privately” is against an Israeli attack because the U.S. will “be blamed anyway”:

HERSH: If Israel goes — I’ll tell you what Cheney’s says privately, and whether or not you, how I know this is, — what he says privately is, “we can’t let Israel go because, first of all, they don’t have the firepower, we do. We have much more firepower. And secondly, if they go, we’ll be blamed anyway.”

Asked by Mitchell if that meant Cheney wanted the U.S. involved, Hersh replied, “there you go.” Watch it:

(Article continues below)

Though Hersh says Cheney only conveys this view “privately,” he has made a similar argument at least once before in public. On Jan. 20, 2005, Cheney went on the “Imus in the Morning” show and discussed another Hersh article about U.S. war posture towards Iran.

“Why don’t we make Israel do it?” asked Imus. “We don’t want a war in the Middle East, if we can avoid it,” replied Cheney. But, he said, “Israel might do it without being asked,” leaving the world to clean up “the diplomatic mess afterwards”:

IMUS: Why don’t we make Israel do it?

CHENEY: Well, one of the concerns people have is that Israel might do it without being asked, that if, in fact, the Israelis became convinced the Iranians had significant nuclear capability, given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards.

Asked by Mitchell if it was “possible this would happen before the election,” Hersh said he didn’t think so, but that what he thinks “means nothing” because “this could happen tomorrow, the president could have a bad hair day and say, ‘to hell with it, let’s go.’”

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8 Responses to “Hersh: Cheney ‘Privately’ Says He Prefers U.S. — Not Israel — Strike Iran Because ‘We’ll Get Blamed Anyway’”

1. me Says:
   July 2nd, 2008 at 8:23 am

   nuclear fallout lasts a long time, long enough for americans to grow a pair and impeach these asshole before the world looses its affection for inept bullies.

2. Dick Says:
   July 2nd, 2008 at 11:01 am

   Tie Cheney to the first bomb dropped

3. beecham Says:
   July 2nd, 2008 at 1:19 pm

   http://wexlerwantshearings.com/

   Help Impeach Cheney

4. George Says:
   July 2nd, 2008 at 4:07 pm

   The Americans have covered Iraq with ’spent’ uranium from used shell casings.It’s a mess! The world is entering uncharted waters, predicated on the price of crude.
   Iran is prepared to call on it’s allies if hostilities break out with US/Israel and we’re all fucked if Vladimir Putin is the one answering the phone at 3 am.

5. michaelm Says:
   July 3rd, 2008 at 4:48 am

   `they don’t have the firepower, we do`, says Cheny.

   Not true. Israel has hundreds of nukes and different means of delivery, Iran has no nukes. No brainer. Also important to say that Pres Ahmadinejad did not threaten Israel. This is a Cheney Administration lie.

   Israel wants to preserve its nukes, which is why America is needed to use its. And America is needed to send in troops, masses of them, to attempt to subdue the population after the nuking, but won’t have the numbers, and i can’t see the draft being well received now by the people of America in pursuit of a 3rd front, with the first two teetering on collapse.

   So, as there are not, nor ever will be, overwhelming American troop numbers for the follow up assault by land, the enterprise will be a disaster when attempted – as it will be – with insufficient numbers of men on the ground.

   Exactly as planned for by Israel, also hoped for is the deterioration in relations b/n America and Russia leading to nuclear war, leaving Israel as the Superpower on Planet Israel, with plenty of troops of its own after having been kept away from the Iranian front, with many of them sent to America to oversee the maintenance of order in a disintegrating and failing former United States of America using Mexicans already there, with more on the way.

   The eight year task of the Bush Administration and its Neocons is the dissolution of the United States of America, and this is the inevitable end run and they are going for it, but time is short for them, so it will be soon.

6. wasteland soldier Says:
   July 3rd, 2008 at 8:10 am

   yeah because if isreal attacks iran alone.no more isreal.lol hence what happened in lebbenon a couple of years ago.we can beat iran.theres no way in hell isreal can.if it wasnt for the u.s. support there wouldnt be an isreal.the only way is if they nuke iran.and if they do itll just make them look more and more like the nazis they are………………………………..NEW RULE ISREAL ….you cant crittisize people or nations anymore when you act just like them.its called practicing what you preach. ZIONISM=NAZISM

7. truth Says:
   July 4th, 2008 at 8:29 am

   Isreal is the root of problem/evil in US/ME. AIPAC JDL ADL are all zionist/mossad elements operating in the US, with the belssing of most of congress and the entire administration. We (US people) need to root out evil while we still can.

8. him Says:
   July 4th, 2008 at 10:21 am

   The world lost its affection and patience with the Nazi, murderous neo-conjob, unclean, morally bankrupt American administration a long, long time ago. There is more than circumstantial evidence they murdered 4,000 of their citizens on 9/11.
   What gets me is people being so surprised. Politics and murder go hand in hand. They always have. Murder and intrigue. People are getting confused thinking life is imitating art, but movies about morally absent politicians murdering people is art imitating life. the way its always been. Et tu Brutus.