“Canadians are no longer safe,” said outspoken American journalist Seymour Hersh, speaking to a packed Mount Royal Centre last Thursday.
He told the audience that although Canada had not committed any troops to Iraq, the country had indirectly supported much of America’s war efforts. And because Canada is considered an ally to the United States, it would now share in the dire consequences of a bungled U.S. foreign policy.
“Sell short and buy property in Tuscany,” he said with a wry smile.
Hersh also painted a gloomy picture for Canadian troops spearheading the NATO mission in southern Afghanistan. “History has proved it time and time again,” he said, referring to the three unsuccessful British wars fought with Afghanistan between 1839 and 1919, as well as the aborted Russian occupation in the 1980s. “The blood of foreign soldiers always ends up staining the rivers of Afghanistan. It will be a short-run win and a long-term loss.”
Hersh is famous for exposing the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, and for more recently chronicling the abuses at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison in The New Yorker. He is respected as much for his distinguished career in investigative journalism as for his harsh criticism of the present American government.
After outlining how President George W. Bush’s administration has progressively been taken over by neo-conservative ideology, he said, “Democracy – how fragile it is that it can be so easily hijacked by a few cultists.”
Alluding to Bush’s foreign policy, Hersh made it clear that he sees little hope for a peaceful outcome to the current deadlock on the international stage.
“We’re going to have a very bad year next year,” he said, “He’s probably going to ‘do’ Iran.” The Iran issue could potentially devastate the world, he continued.
He made no more comments specific to Iran, turning instead to his knowledge of the Abu Ghraib ignominy and the present quagmire in Iraq.
Hersh called the sexual humiliation of Arab men, which he claimed the American army had used as an interrogation technique, “terribly misguided,” and said the American army had seriously underestimated the consequences.
Hersh quoted an ex-secret service agent from the Israeli Mossad, who said, “‘You have no idea what you’ve done.'”
“We’re going to see payback for this,” said Hersh. “It’s a nightmare and we haven’t even begun to get to the end of it.”
He said that having American troops leave Iraq now was the only hope for minimizing what he saw as a complete disaster. He dismissed federation – one solution proposed by Washington for organizing the different ethnic and religious factions in Iraq – as “just not an option.”
So far, few influential Americans have called for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, but the number is growing. With midterm elections coming up in November, the Republicans are desperate for a solution.
While Bush continues to claim the U.S. is winning the war, Hersh ridiculed this idea with a Richard Pryor joke where a husband says to his wife while glancing back at his mistress in bed, “Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?”
“I mean, can anybody say Iraq is going to be better in six months. a year?” Hersh asked the audience.
But according to Hersh, Bush is not about to change his stick-to-it policy in Iraq. “Bush isn’t worried about what happens in Iraq,” he said. “In fact, he doesn’t give a rat’s ass.”
Hersh said that not all analogies commonly drawn between the Vietnam War and the current situation in Iraq are appropriate. One analogy he did agree with, however, was that, as with the Vietcong, the Iraqi enemy is invisible.
“These GIs see a kid on a bike, an old woman carrying a bag, and they have no idea who’s going to blow them up,” said Hersh. “And that is what brings the fear and overwhelming frustration that caused My Lai and the horrors of Abu Ghraib.”
Hersh’s speech marked the launch of Media@McGill, a focal point for teaching and researching media and communications studies.