October 14-20, 2004
artpicks
Chain of Fools
books
The title of Seymour Hersh’s new book says it all. The Bush administration might want to pin the abuses of military power in Iraq on a few rogue agents, in the same way that Bush blamed rampant corporate misbehavior on "a few bad apples," but Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib (HarperCollins) makes it clear that the fish stinks from the head. Along with his New Yorker colleagues’ reporting on the ground, Hersh’s focus on the administration mindset (and the futile efforts of those who oppose it) paints a chilling portrait of a foreign policy where ideology trumps pragmatism every time. (Or, as Hersh told Salon, "idealism that doesn’t conform to reality.") Critics call the magazine’s reporting biased, but an anti-Bush slant is only biased if it exists in opposition to the facts. And the facts are practically every reporter in Iraq who doesn’t get a paycheck from Rupert Murdoch says the country is going into a tailspin. Hersh’s book is an invaluable reminder that the best reporting is always fair, but it’s only balanced when both sides have an equal claim on the truth.
Seymour Hersh reads Thu., Oct. 14, doors open 7:15 p.m., reading 8 p.m., $6 simulcast (audience tickets sold out), Free Library of Philadelphia, Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 215-686-5322.
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