First off, this is a question, not an answer. Seymour Hersh may be the most respectable, reliable, resourced investigative reporter on the American Military-Industrial Complex today. He has four decades of experience and connections so when I read his
assertations that the Pentagon is working up a nuclear gameplan for Iran at crisis status I believe him. I think the Generals in the kitchen are cooking up detailed recipes to solve the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad problem. The calculus makes sense. This administration doesn't like middle eastern strongmen who hate America and the new Persian President keeps making statements and policy that literally sells itself as "crazy nuclear madman". My question is why is this breaking now? Are Hersh's Pentagon sources merely putting out a calculated news release from the PR firm of Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush?
Why would the White House want to "break" the "top secret" news that we are getting on a war footing vis-a-vis Iran? One possiblity might be that we can't afford a real campaign with a country twice the population of Iraq with an infrastructure that hasn't been degraded by ten years of frequently enforced sanctions. If you can't put the boots on the ground or bombs in the bunkers you try to put the buzz on the street.
While serious thoughts of American nuclear adventurism may inspire knee-jerk rhetoric from dogmatic mullahs these nightmare may also inspire a more pragmatic response from the broad body politic on the Iranian street. I suspect most of us do not agree with this supposition but consider that most of the braintrust in place today was in place three years, one war and over twenty thousand American casualties ago.
How does the White House manipulate Seymour Hersh. He isn't an ambitious poptart looking to make a name in the business. His vaunted sources couldn't have slipped him a journalistic "mickey" ala Dan Rather because Hersh doesn't relie on any single anonymous sources, he knows everybody and knows when someone is selling a bad melon. No, the way to play legendary reporter is to give him a story that is absolutely true.
Here's a hypothesis: Undersecretary of Overadministration John Doe sends a memo to Viscount John Bolton proposing that grounded rumours of imminent nuclear attack would precipitate a popular uprising in Tehran. Bolton scrubs all documentation of this memo and calls Cardinal Donald Rumsfeld with his "inspiration". Rumsfeld shares this plan with the Archduke Cheney over some virgin's blood and cigars that evening and the dye is cast. Before the Idiot Prince has even been consulted a gaggle of four-stars are diverting any and all resources within the Pentagon towards, what they are assured is a fate-a-compli. With the five turned halls abuzz with a war fever Seymour Hersh was probably getting swamped with calls within hours.
I am not presupposing any competence on these courtiers, only a conspiratorial culture that always looks for the longest path from point A to point B. To these people reportage has been perhaps the most effective weapon in their arsenal the past five years and it may be the only one they can afford to still use.