Journalist, Seymour Hersh, criticizes U.S. president, administration

In the more than 40 years that he's been a reporter, Seymour Hersh has angered a lot of people, including the military, intelligence agencies and presidential administrations.

Now, he has taken a turn to vent about what infuriates him right now - namely President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.

The revered investigative reporter - who famously uncovered the My Lai massacre and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal - did just that Wednesday night as he addressed the University community in the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus.

He spoke critically of Bush and the way his administration has handled the war thus far.

The United States is continually bombing the cities in Iraq, the military is lowering standards and Bush isn't talking to the insurgency, according to Hersh, who has spent a lot of time in the country working on stories.

The war has also put the United States in a somewhat negative light.

"Most of the world thinks the insurgents are us," he said.

Hersh said eight or nine neo-conservatives took over in the government and took the country from a legitimate war against Osama bin Laden to a war against Baghdad.

He called Bush a utopian that believes his mission in life is bringing democracy to Iraq.

"There's nothing more dangerous than someone who is dedicated to a radical plan of action," Hersh said.

Hersh offered the audience two of his own solutions for the war: leave Iraq by midnight tonight, or by midnight tomorrow.

He said many Americans are unaware of what really goes on in Iraq.

"The American press in Baghdad are limited to what the military tells them," said Hersh, although the European press covers many things that the American press does not.

"We don't hear about the wounded. Statistically, they don't want to talk about it," Hersh said. "And they don't talk about the other side."

The problems won't end any time soon, the veteran writer said.

"We have left you a real mess," Hersh said of his generation. "Revenge can come two, three or four decades later."

Hersh has earned the respect and ire of many throughout his career, because of his investigative pieces and his recent commentaries.

"His desire to speak the truth really comes through," said Barbara Reed, a journalism professor introducing Hersh.

He graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in history and worked at The Associated Press and The New York Times before becoming a freelance writer.

He has won the Pulitzer Prize, several Polk Awards and the Lennon/Ono Peace Award.

"I don't want my kids to lie to me, and I won't lie to my children," Hersh said about his quest for the truth. "We do not expect of our leadership what we demand in our personal lives."