"It would be a cheap war with many benefits"

seymour hersh, the intrepid, never-say-die, investigative journalist for the new yorker, gives us the rest of the story that's been leaking out for the past couple of weeks...

Hersh describes the administration's initial reaction to the invasion [of Lebanon by Israel] as "strangely passive," with George W. Bush saying on July 16, "It’s a moment of clarification" and Condoleezza Rice stating two days later that a ceasefire should wait until "the conditions are conducive."

Hersh's intelligence and diplomatic sources tell him that the reason for this hands-off reaction was that George Bush and Dick Cheney already knew about Israeli plans for a bombing campaign against Hezbollah's underground missile complexes and were convinced that it could both increase Israel's security and serve as a prelude to a American pre-emptive attack on Iran's nuclear installations.

The White House also wanted Hezbollah stripped of the ability to retailiate against Israel in the wake of an American attack on Iran. As one U.S. government consultant told Hersh, "The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits. Why oppose it? We’ll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran."

a "cheap war..." precisely the cold, callous, heedlessness of the cost of human lives that we've come to expect from our government...

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