Chris Wallace on Torture: Post Hoc Ergo Propter....Well, You See Where I'm Going With This...
At Sullivan's digs.
What I like is how people will embrace any argument, no matter how #^@&ing stupid, so long as it has a conclusion they like.
So, Bush/Cheney & co. were in office after 9/11 and we weren't attacked...so they are responsible for the fact that there were not attacked.
Of course, they were in office on and for eight months before 9/11, so by parity of reasoning, they are responsible for our having been attacked on 9/11.
No, no, no, no, that obviously won't work...it has the wrong conclusion! So it can't be valid!
Um...o.k., it was the torture. We started torturing...uh, I mean, enhanced interrogating...people after 9/11, and we had no more attacks. Post hoc ergo propter hoc. So voila, torture prevented attacks.
Although, Mr. Wallace, you jackass, you might also consider taking into account that not being attacked is the ordinary state of affairs around these parts.
Not being attacked does not ordinarily require an explanation here in the US of A. It is, you see, in the ordinary course of events.
But since I guess it's a logical free-for-all now, here's one for ya:
Looking at the most recently available data, in 100% of Republican presidencies there are devastating terrorist attacks, while there are such attacks in 0% of Democratic presidencies.
Obviously Republican presidencies cause terrorist attacks.
So if you vote Republican, then the terrorists have already won.
At Sullivan's digs.
What I like is how people will embrace any argument, no matter how #^@&ing stupid, so long as it has a conclusion they like.
So, Bush/Cheney & co. were in office after 9/11 and we weren't attacked...so they are responsible for the fact that there were not attacked.
Of course, they were in office on and for eight months before 9/11, so by parity of reasoning, they are responsible for our having been attacked on 9/11.
No, no, no, no, that obviously won't work...it has the wrong conclusion! So it can't be valid!
Um...o.k., it was the torture. We started torturing...uh, I mean, enhanced interrogating...people after 9/11, and we had no more attacks. Post hoc ergo propter hoc. So voila, torture prevented attacks.
Although, Mr. Wallace, you jackass, you might also consider taking into account that not being attacked is the ordinary state of affairs around these parts.
Not being attacked does not ordinarily require an explanation here in the US of A. It is, you see, in the ordinary course of events.
But since I guess it's a logical free-for-all now, here's one for ya:
Looking at the most recently available data, in 100% of Republican presidencies there are devastating terrorist attacks, while there are such attacks in 0% of Democratic presidencies.
Obviously Republican presidencies cause terrorist attacks.
So if you vote Republican, then the terrorists have already won.
posted by Winston Smith at
6:24 PM
1 Comments:
I dunno. It seems you've got Cheney in the skepticism snare where you can't lose. Took an aspirin this morning but the headache would have gone away regardless.
Seems the same snare with the shoe on the other foot here:
ABC News Exclusive: National Security Adviser Says President Obama Is Having Greater Success Taking Terrorists Out of Commission Than Bush Did
August 31, 2009 6:00 PM
Responding to criticism from former Vice President Cheney that President Obama is making the nation more vulnerable to terrorism, the president’s National Security Adviser, Gen. Jim Jones (Ret.), told ABC News in an exclusive interview that actually the reverse is true: President Obama’s greater success with international relations has meant more terrorists put out of commission.
“This type of radical fundamentalism or terrorism is a threat not only to the United States but to the global community,” Jones said. “The world is coming together on this matter now that President Obama has taken the leadership on it and is approaching it in a slightly different way – actually a radically different way – to discuss things with other rulers to enhance the working relationships with law enforcement agencies – both national and international."
Jones said that “we are seeing results that indicate more captures, more deaths of radical leaders and a kind of a global coming-together by the fact that this is a threat to not only the United States but to the world at-large and the world is moving toward doing something about it.”
The former Marine General didn't provide any specific numbers to back up his claim, but he said “there is an increasing trend and I think we seen that in different parts of the world over the last few months for sure.” He added that he was not “making a tally sheet saying we are killing more people, capturing more people than they did -- that is not the issue.”
But the numbers are going up, he said. “The numbers of high value targets that we are successfully reaching out to or identifying through good intelligence” from both the CIA and intelligence agencies from US allies has made the difference, he said. “We have better human intelligence; we know where the terrorists are moving. Because of the dialogue and the tone of the dialogue between us and our friends and allies...the trend line against terrorism is positive, and that’s what we want. If we have a positive trend line we have a safer country.”
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