http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/31/cheney-proposal-for-iran-war/ EXCLUSIVE: To Provoke War, Cheney Considered Proposal To Dress Up Navy Seals As Iranians And Shoot At Them Speaking at the Campus Progress journalism conference earlier this month, Seymour Hersh a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist for The New Yorker revealed that Bush administration officials held a meeting recently in the Vice Presidents office to discuss ways to provoke a war with Iran. In Hershs most recent article, he reports that this meeting occurred in the wake of the overblown incident in the Strait of Hormuz, when a U.S. carrier almost shot at a few small Iranian speedboats. The meeting took place in the Vice-Presidents office. The subject was how to create a casus belli between Tehran and Washington, according to one of Hershs sources. During the journalism conference event, I asked Hersh specifically about this meeting and if he could elaborate on what occurred. Hersh explained that, during the meeting in Cheneys office, an idea was considered to dress up Navy Seals as Iranians, put them on fake Iranian speedboats, and shoot at them. This idea, intended to provoke an Iran war, was ultimately rejected: HERSH: There was a dozen ideas proffered about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why dont we build we in our shipyard build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up. Might cost some lives. And it was rejected because you cant have Americans killing Americans. Thats the kind of thats the level of stuff were talking about. Provocation. But that was rejected. Watch it: (Sy Hersh at Campus Progress journalism conference) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slgBrbNXrbs&eurl=http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/31/cheney-proposal-for-iran-war/ Hersh argued that one of the things the Bush administration learned during the encounter in the Strait of Hormuz was that, if you get the right incident, the American public will support it. Look, is it high school? Yeah, Hersh said. Are we playing high school with you know 5,000 nuclear warheads in our arsenal? Yeah we are. Were playing, you know, whos the first guy to run off the highway with us and Iran. Transcript: HERSH: There was a meeting. Among the items considered and rejected which is why the New Yorker did not publish it, on grounds that it wasnt accepted one of the items was why not There was a dozen ideas proffered about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why dont we build we in our shipyard build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up. Might cost some lives. And it was rejected because you cant have Americans killing Americans. Thats the kind of thats the level of stuff were talking about. Provocation. But that was rejected. So I can understand the argument for not writing something that was rejected uh maybe. My attitude always towards editors is theyre mice training to be rats. But the point is jejune, if you know what that means. Silly? Maybe. But potentially very lethal. Because one of the things they learned in the incident was the American public, if you get the right incident, the American public will support bang-bang-kiss-kiss. You know, were into it. What happened in the Gulf was, in the Straits, in early January, the President was just about to go to the Middle East for a visit. So that was one reason they wanted to gin it up. Get it going. Look, is it high school? Yeah. Are we playing high school with you know 5,000 nuclear warheads in our arsenal? Yeah we are. Were playing, you know, whos the first guy to run off the highway with us and Iran. UpdateKevin Drum adds: If this story sounds familiar, that's because it is. In one of David Manning's famous memos describing a prewar meeting between George Bush and Tony Blair, he says that Bush admitted that WMD was unlikely to be found in Iraq and then mused on some possible options for justifying a war anyway: "The U.S. was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in U.N. colours," the memo says, attributing the idea to Mr. Bush. "If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach." In the end, of course, we didn't do this. We just didn't bother with any pretext at all.
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