May 29, 2000

BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Are fabled reporter Seymour M. Hersh's carefully documented charges that in 1991, a U.S. mechanized division massacred defenseless retreating Iraqi troops worthy of new official investigation? The thundering answer from Congress, the Pentagon, the White House and leaders of both political parties: no, absolutely not.

The governmental establishment's attitude is that the horrifying events alleged by Hersh in the New Yorker magazine never happened, but we don't want to know about it if they did happen. Since Hersh's Gulf War expose was published two weeks ago, military and political leaders have joined together to kill the messenger.

Based on 300 interviews conducted over six months, Hersh reconstructed one of the most one-sided victories in U.S. military annals. Two days after the Gulf War cease-fire, the 24th Infantry Division demolished a retreating Iraqi Republican Guard tank division near the Rumaila oil field at hardly any cost of American life. The article alleges that the division's commander, Maj. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, attacked without serious provocation in pursuit of glory.

Hersh's 32-page account casts a new light on the Gulf War and the rancorous U.S.-Iraqi relationship since then. On-the-record quotes from generals, lower-ranked officers and enlisted personnel describe the 24th Division's troubling performance and subsequent flawed Army investigations.

Yet, I found little or no interest in Hersh's work among members of Congress who normally love to investigate. Most Senate Armed Services Committee members I contacted had not read the article, and some had never heard about it. Others asked why Hersh's sources did not come forward a decade ago. Hersh's article makes clear it was unhealthy in the 1991 Army to threaten military triumphalism.

McCaffrey's Rumaila "turkey shoot" has been whispered about for years inside the military. A retired Army officer told me: "Hersh has it about 85 percent right. Everybody knows that. The old boys' network has just circled the wagons."

Military establishments are loathe to investigate themselves, but there are special considerations here. After the malaise of Vietnam, generals were not willing in 1991 to dampen the public's Gulf War euphoria by uncovering unwelcome facts. A decade later, the Army--beleaguered by scandals, hard up for enlistments and losing young officers--wants to let sleeping scandals rest.

President Clinton is tied to the military's position because McCaffrey retired in 1996 as a four-star general and became the Cabinet-level drug czar. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart jumped into ad hominem trashing of Hersh, alleging that the prize-winning journalist was just trying to "revive" his career. McCaffrey himself claimed improbably that Hersh's real motive was to "undermine our efforts to stem the flow of illegal drugs to America."

Congress never has looked closely at the Rumaila turkey shoot. The Senate Armed Service Committee lionized McCaffrey when it questioned him in May 1991, and the transcript a decade later exudes the general's swagger. Asked if there ever had been a military victory to compare with Desert Storm, McCaffrey replied: "I am a military historian. I do not know of another place in history where there was a more astounding victory, or use of military force, than this campaign." One senator, previously silent, interceded: "How about the German victory at the Battle of France in 1940?"

The senator was John McCain. Asked on CNN last weekend whether he felt an investigation was warranted, McCain gave an answer different from his colleagues: "I don't know." While lavishly praising McCaffrey, McCain added: "This is an issue that I would like to hear about a little more." After the television taping, I asked McCain if he had read Hersh's article. He said he had not but planned to. That's more than most of his colleagues have done.

Robert Novak's new book is Completing the Revolution: A Vision for Victory in 2000. Novak appears on CNN's "Capital Gang" at 6 p.m. Saturday and "Evans, Novak, Hunt and Shields" at 4:30 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday.