The day after 9/11, we should have gone to Russia. We did the one thing that George Kennan warned us never to do - to expand NATO too far. Seymour Hersh More Quotes by Seymour Hersh More Quotes From Seymour Hersh The National Security Adviser is supposed to be an arbiter of policy and open minded in internal debates. But the playing field was never balanced. It was always tilted toward Rumsfeld's position, which is obviously the same as Bush's. Seymour Hersh debate open-minded fields The reality is that Qaddafi has been trying to talk to us about his weapons system for years, and we ignored him. The Libyans even came to me about two years ago and offered me a chance to go through their facilities because they couldn't get anybody's attention here. Seymour Hersh two reality years Few knew in 2000 that Bush was going to end up with neoconservatives all over the place. And once 9/11 happened, I think it's fair to say that eight or nine neocons have had an enormous influence. The whole solution to every problem was to go after Iraq. This had been a neoconservative mantra for ten years. There was no secret about it. Seymour Hersh eight years thinking The idea of photographing an Arab man naked and having him simulate homosexual activity, and having an American GI woman in the photographs, is the end of society in their eyes. Seymour Hersh eye men ideas I would argue that a lot of the stories I wrote were pretty much on-mark. Seymour Hersh politics This series of self-serving and inaccurate statements would create chaos in the weeks following. Seymour Hersh top-news I hate to see the way journalism is devalued: We have to feed the machine; we have to feed the Trump outrage machine, to feed the anger against Trump, to feed the New York liberal anger. Seymour Hersh journalism anger hate way I'm a better American than 99% of the guys in the White House. Seymour Hersh american better white house Bush can talk about 100,000 people wanting to go work in the police or in the army. It's because there's nothing else for them to do. They're willing to stand in line to get bombed because they want to take care of their family. Seymour Hersh police family work people I didn't know I was gonna be a writer when I started out. Seymour Hersh started out gonna know I'm not convinced that every secret has to be published. I think there are secrets worth keeping, and I think there are secrets not worth keeping. Seymour Hersh worth secrets think secret Yeah, I shoot my mouth off. There's a huge difference between writing and thinking. Seymour Hersh mouth difference writing thinking It doesn't matter that Bush scares the hell out of me. What matters is that he scares the hell out of a lot of very important people in Washington who can't speak out, in the military, in the intelligence community. Seymour Hersh me intelligence community people I don't think much of the journalism that I see. Seymour Hersh i-see see think journalism If you think I write stories where it is all right to just be good enough, are you kidding? You think I have a cavalier attitude on throwing stuff out? Are you kidding? I am not cavalier about what I do for a living. Seymour Hersh i-am good you attitude Maybe I am not an easy guy. Seymour Hersh maybe i-am guy easy I have always been a freelancer. I always work for myself. Seymour Hersh been myself always work I don't necessarily buy the story that Bin Laden was responsible for 9/11. Seymour Hersh bin buy story responsible I have this sort of heuristic view that journalism, we possibly offer hope because the world is clearly run by total nincompoops more than ever... Not that journalism is always wonderful - it's not - but at least we offer some way out, some integrity. Seymour Hersh view hope integrity world I say to people, 'Do you have any idea how hard it is to do that, to write 7,000 words in 10 hours or 12 hours for the front page of the 'New York Times' and to know that they trust you so much that that it's going to lead the paper?' It's hard. I mean, it's a feat. Seymour Hersh words you trust people
