OLD BOYS IGNORING ALLEGED 'TURKEY SHOOT'

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 Persian Gulf War
exposé was published two weeks ago, military and political leaders have
joined 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.

The Rumaila "turkey shoot" has been whispered about for years inside the
military. One retired Army officer, now a congressional staffer, told me:
"Hersh has it about 85 percent right. Everybody knows that. The old boys
network has just circled the wagons."

Military establishments are notoriously 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 alleged 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."

Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joints Chiefs during the Gulf War and
now the most exalted figure in public life, has joined the attack on Hersh.
That more tightly ties Republican candidate George W. Bush into the defense
of McCaffrey. Bush wants to be as close as possible to Powell, and
McCaffrey won his third star as general thanks to Powell, despite
widespread opposition in the officer corps.

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, as a senior
member of the Armed Services, 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.