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Written seven years into the Syrian war, which has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians, *Reporter* contains no criticism of Assad—not once does Hersh reflect on whether his early impressions of the dictator were naive. In person, Hersh goes further. “I liked Assad,” he says. “I thought he improved a lot as I met him. He never did enough on human rights but he was moving.” Hersh cites the arrival of cash machines and the broadcast of a Turkish soap opera about an unmarried mother as evidence. “He was getting better. He was much more confident every year. You could speak out against him a little bit.” That wasn’t the experience of those who protested against the Assad regime in the southern town of Deraa in March 2011. A group of boys had written graffiti in support of the Arab Spring. They were badly beaten up by Assad’s security forces, sparking protests which were brutally suppressed by the regime—the uprising had begun. ………………… Unlike his investigations into America’s chemical and biological warfare programme in the 1960s, there were no witnesses, no documents and no damning evidence. Instead he had quotes from a handful of anonymous former US officials. To Hersh’s band of supporters, this didn’t matter. It was Sy Hersh, the guy who uncovered My Lai and won a Pulitzer. It must be true. https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/whatever-happened-to-seymour-hersh _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
