[Miss Marple]

I am dubious about much of this article. Seymour Hersh, writing in The New Yorker, and quoting unnamed sources including a former CIA official, and using overly theatrical quotes, to boot.

I am sure the Special Forces are in Iraq. I don't think the scenario is quite what Hersh says it is.

[thesummerwind]

overly theatrical quotes

indubitably?

[thesummerwind]

Col. Kurtz: I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies.

Now that is theatrical.

[AHerald]

I am dubious about much of this article. Seymour Hersh, writing in The New Yorker ...

Same here. Hersh has a long history of writing stories of dubious authenticity. In Woodward's Bush at War, President Bush is quoted as having said that "Seymour Hersh is a liar."

[Maigrey]

I'm not so sure. If there are sniper units in Iraq, (and there are, since they've been published in Army Times and picked up by USA Today) then they are not going to be hanging out on rooftops and out in desert hovels twittling their thumbs. They are out there working.

There are many aspects of war and armed conflict we as civilians find distasteful and appalling. But if someone is gunning for you, and you've got the chance to take him out, and save lives in the process, so be it.

I don't like it either, but I understand the circumstances.

[SubMareener]

I agree. Hersh seems to be trying to revive moral equivalence.

The biggest change in our tactics in Iraq is that the Army has learned that, when you are attacked, you counter attack! You don't just run back to your base with the wounded! This lead them to all sorts of other proactive behaviors that have made them much more effective.