Sy Hersh on the Middle East -- UPDATE

Note: For a video pertinent to this story, go to Crooks & Liars here.
The video is a must-watch. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STORY OF THE DAY.

Seymour Hersh offers the best current overview of the mad situation in the Middle East. In essence, we are supporting a pro-Iranian Shi'ite government in Iraq while counterbalancing Iran by supporting radical Sunnis everywhere else. These Sunni jihadists are quite often pro-Al Qaeda. One does not really have to read very far between the lines of Hersh's piece to discover that Al Qaeda is, in essence, Bush's friend -- in practice, though not in rhetoric.

This blog has seen some discussion of the partition-of-Iraq idea. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah spoke to Hersh on that subject. Nasrallah thinks that the goal is partition not just of Iraq but all other nations in the region, including Saudi Arabia:

Partition would leave Israel surrounded by “small tranquil states,” he said. “I can assure you that the Saudi kingdom will also be divided, and the issue will reach to North African states. There will be small ethnic and confessional states,” he said. “In other words, Israel will be the most important and the strongest state in a region that has been partitioned into ethnic and confessional states that are in agreement with each other. This is the new Middle East.”

Some readers, and some other bloggers, have voiced a similar view. But is this view accurate? In fact, Bush has done nothing to indicate that he favors the partition of Iraq. He could have accomplished that goal by now if he wanted it. Besides, even in Nasrallah's wildest fantasy, Iran cannot be partitioned. One of the main problems with the invasion of Iraq -- and this is a point Hersh drives home -- is that it left Iran without a countervailing power in the region.

Hersh saves some of his most fascinating material for the end, where some may miss it.

Iran-Contra was the subject of an informal “lessons learned” discussion two years ago among veterans of the scandal. Abrams led the discussion. One conclusion was that even though the program was eventually exposed, it had been possible to execute it without telling Congress. As to what the experience taught them, in terms of future covert operations, the participants found: “One, you can’t trust our friends. Two, the C.I.A. has got to be totally out of it. Three, you can’t trust the uniformed military, and four, it’s got to be run out of the Vice-President’s office”—a reference to Cheney’s role, the former senior intelligence official said.

Yeah, we kind of figured as much. But:

The Pentagon consultant added that one difficulty, in terms of oversight, was accounting for covert funds. “There are many, many pots of black money, scattered in many places and used all over the world on a variety of missions,” he said. The budgetary chaos in Iraq, where billions of dollars are unaccounted for, has made it a vehicle for such transactions, according to the former senior intelligence official and the retired four-star general.

“This goes back to Iran-Contra,” a former National Security Council aide told me. “And much of what they’re doing is to keep the agency out of it.” He said that Congress was not being briefed on the full extent of the U.S.-Saudi operations. And, he said, “The C.I.A. is asking, ‘What’s going on?’ They’re concerned, because they think it’s amateur hour.”