THE STRAW MEN OF IRAQ: Ten Pro-War Fallacies (from 11/05)

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

It's a Salon article which doesn't require a day pass. It's as relevant now, as it was when written last year after the bogus House vote about immediate withdrawal.

(a tip of the hat to RedEarth, who posted this on DU on 11/22/05):hi:

In fact, it's a blueprint for debunking the idiotic arguments still offered up by the RW as justification for this continuing debacle.
(bolding is mine).

...A parade of House Republicans went after the Dems and laid out a surprisingly weak case for the invasion and continued occupation of Iraq. Here, in my view, are ten of the leading pro-war fallacies...

1. VIRTUALLY EVERYONE WHO SAW THE INTELLIGENCE BELIEVED SADDAM HAD WMD, THEREFORE BUSH IS BEING UNFAIRLY SINGLED OUT FOR CRITICISM

>snip
In both (a) and (b), the crux of the issue is proportionality. Whether or not Bill Clinton or France or the U.N. believed Saddam was a threat, the administration's apocalyptic words and drastic actions (preemptively invading a sovereign nation) were decidedly out of proportion to the level and immediacy of the threat. THAT is the issue.

or, later in the article:

5. A WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ WOULD HAVE CATASTROPHIC CONSEQUENCES

If I learned anything from living in Beirut, it's that predicting the outcome of sectarian divisions in the Middle East is a fool's game. The shifting alliances, the internal pressures, the regional influences, make it next to impossible to say whether or not the removal of American forces would further destabilize Iraq.

It's also grimly amusing that we're expected to believe the prognostications of the very people who told us we'd be greeted as liberators.

For every foreign policy expert who says that Iraq will be worse off without U.S. troops, there's another who will tell you the exact opposite is true. In the absence of any sound predictive capabilities, the endgame should be based on the opening: i.e. the sooner you end something that started out wrong and has had terrible consequences, the better.

It's a well written deconstruction of the lameness of the cabal's side of the public debate. Enjoy.

MKJ


http://daoureport.salon.com/synopsis.aspx?synopsisId=5a38ddbe-5581-43bb-bbde-cb2111fa048b

[Hosnon]

1. Very nice...bookmarked. nt

[Hosnon]

2. Self-delete.