Boot Doesn’t Have the Stature to Kick Hersh

Re “Digging Into Seymour Hersh,” Commentary, Jan. 27: Max Boot may not like the stories Hersh digs up or how he writes them. But here’s a question: Boot is a well-connected fellow, at ease in the halls of power and among those in the know; what stunning, paradigm-shifting stories has he brought to the public square lately?

Boot can fact-check Hersh and attack him all he wants -- the fact remains that while there are dozens of Max Boots beating the drums of war and frantically spinning rationalizations in defense of the powers that be, Hersh is a virtually peerless gadfly. Whatever his flaws, Hersh’s very rarity makes him a precious commodity. Long may he rave.

Ben Dickinson

New York

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For Boot to spend a column assailing Hersh is pitiful. Boot fails to discredit a single element of Hersh’s story on the Pentagon’s Iran planning. Boot stayed clear of the facts because virtually every objective expert interviewed about Hersh’s story confirm that his account makes sense and has the ring of truth. The administration’s denials are no more than over-broad harangues.

I recall one of Boot’s columns in which he gave his opinion on the Vietnam War, despite admitting that he was too young to have known about it personally. While Boot was in grade school, Hersh was covering the My Lai story. While Boot was cravenly defending the troubled Iraq invasion, Hersh was breaking the Abu Ghraib story. Boot has neither the stature nor the standing to disparage Hersh.

Michael Artan

Los Angeles

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So Boot, of all people, is bothered that Hersh has a biased worldview? I haven’t laughed that hard since I read that Dick Cheney is worried about Social Security.

Tim Clark

Los Angeles