Seymour Hersh appeared on Rachel Maddow's show on MSNBC to discuss President Obama's decision to reject all Afghanistan plans presented to him at this point.
Seymour was near breathless as he discussed how huge a decision this is.
He's saying, "I'm taking control". He's grabbing it, and he hasn't been grabbling it til now.
I will post a transcript if one becomes available.
Until then, I'll do some quick paraphrasing.
We always compare Obama to Lincoln...Lincoln didn't let his generals
write a report on how to win the war against the south.
This is basically a war that's going to be a stalemate...a ten year stalemate...so Obama is putting his foot down, and that's great. He's making a politcal gamble in a sense. He's grabbing it...
On Eikenberry's cable back to Washington...oh this is trouble in River City, this is big news. The top of the Army, they've been unhappy with McCrystal...they see a West Point cabal.
For Eikenberry to split...probably knows more about Karzai's mental state. He's reflecting a huge split....
He then goes on to discuss Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
Transcript by Julie...please, don’t hold me responsible for errors...but I’ll give this a shot.
Ignore spelling of names.....the first 3 minutes 20 seconds
R: Tonite’s breaking news..Obama has rejected all options presented to him on Afhanistan.
Joining us now is Seymour Hersh, staff writer for the New Yorker. Before we talk Pakistan, I have to ask you about the breaking news........Eikenberry saying, don’t send more troops and Obama rejecting the options before him.
H: Look, it could be huge, it’s early but it shows he’s taking control. The only thing that mystifies a lot of my friends on the inside, the decision to let General McCrystal write a report.
We always compare Obama to Lincoln but Lincoln didn’t allow General McClellan to write a report on how to win the war on how to win the south. There is no General in history that will write a report that will say we can’t win. This is a war that is going to be a stalemate...a 10 year
Stalemate...so Obama is putting his foot down...and that’s great. He’s making a political gamble...it’s too early to say..but he’s grabbing it, he’s grabbing it. And he hasn’t been grabbing it until now.
R: What about Eikenberry’s cable back to Washington? AP reporter said tonite that this was totally out of the blue. How surprised are you?
H: This is trouble in River City, because I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you, the top of; the Army, General Casey, they’ve been very unhappy with the McCrystal appointment, and the way things have been going, and part of it is they see a West Point Cabal. Theres always a notion of a West Point
Mafia. Eikenberry was a couple years ahead..class of 73...Petraeus, Odierno, Rodriquez, McCrystal, they are all 74 or 75, been together, causing a lot of trauma inside the Army. The man who was kicked out, Gen. McKiernan was William and Mary, not a West Pointer. For Eikenberry to split...this summer, lot of concern about mental stability ofKarzai....Eikenberry may know more. A lot of deep seeded problems with Karzai. May explain why Holbrook has had trouble. Eikenberry is reflecting a huge split because he’s now splitting with McCrystal,
Splitting with the counter insurgency wing that’s been dominated by Patraeus, if my guess is right.
From here they went on to discuss Pakistan and it's nuclear arsenal.