Air Power

Seymour Hersh zeros in on the real significance of the administration's latest Iraq War policy zig-zag — we may soon have fewer boots on ground, but we'll have a lot more in the air, and that's not really a good thing.

Within the military, the prospect of using airpower as a substitute for American troops on the ground has caused great unease. For one thing, Air Force commanders, in particular, have deep-seated objections to the possibility that Iraqis eventually will be responsible for target selection. "Will the Iraqis call in air strikes in order to snuff rivals, or other warlords, or to snuff members of your own sect and blame someone else?" another senior military planner now on assignment in the Pentagon asked. "Will some Iraqis be targeting on behalf of Al Qaeda, or the insurgency, or the Iranians?"

It's interesting that Hersh continues to produce must-read investigative pieces, while Bob Woodward, his contemporary, is becoming part of the kind of government conspiracies he used to unmask. In the end, it's just the difference between stenography and reporting. And reporting as such is an increasingly scarce resource.