HuffPo is reporting that Seymour Hersh will say in a forthcoming book that some high-ranking members of the Joint Special Operations Command, including its former head Gen. Stanley McChrystal, are "Crusaders" who want to turn mosques into cathedrals. This is based upon a report by a unnamed writer for Foreign Policy, who supposedly took notes from a speech that Hersh supposedly gave in Doha (UAE) at the Doha Branch of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Hersh points to Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta, the first a Catholic organization and the second a historically Catholic organization, in conjunction with this claim, saying that the "Crusaders" are members of one or both of these organizations.

Charles Lane, writing for the Washington Post, does not think much of Hersh's latest claim:

I really don't put much stock in anything Hersh says these days.

The only thing I noticed when I was on active duty is that the military chaplain's core has been over-run by crazy Evangelicals. I stopped going to services while in country, because I couldn't stand our Chaplain. He was prone to show the goofy videos from Christian Evangelicals that claimed it was the duty of all Christians to protect Israel.

A.) That's completely off-topic as to our mission in Afghanistan.
B.) The implied message is frightening.

For those interested, this is well documented in a little known, but excellent, book: The New American Militarism by Andew Bacevich.

As for the flag officers? I highly doubt this. Actions like this would be completely detrimental to our mission. Attacking Islam in country is the most idiotic thing we could do and Mosques are "off limits". We wouldn't even touch Korans in houses we went into.

Even it it were true, this is why we have a civilian chain of command. MacChrystal had to go, but I've been impressed that he's been a professional after he was relieved (not becoming a right wing darling to the detriment of the mission). I don't see the point in another Hersh hatchet job.

What you say (in the section that I elided to conserve bits and bytes) makes more sense to me than what Hersh wrote. He may have been reading too much Dan Brown. The next step would have been to discern Vatican involvement. Or the Illuminati. Or Hersh may just be an aging conspiracy theorist of the left. Because I've been the target of two of them, I know they do exist.

It is interesting that most of the comments on Hounshell's piece are critical of Hounshell. One way to summarize a few of them would be "How dare this young whippersnapper of a 'reporter' dare to question the great Seymour Hersh?" Hounshell was writing from a recording, which ought to provide him some proof of what Hersh said. The recording may be of really poor quality, in that Hounshell has added a note:

Speaking of McChrystal: McChrystal to oversee White House initiative

Recall McChystral was a birther hero for about a week.

Seymour Hersh is still alive?? Huh.

No. His estate licensed out his name.

Somebody needs to pass on the news to Mr. Hersh. He is probably owed a lot of money.