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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (97794)	1/30/2005 10:43:26 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793587

Balloon Juice - Beware the Strawmen The greatest weapon in the sophist's arsenal is the strawman argument, and they are out in force today. Ezra Klein: Americans, for our part, will spend the morning watching CNN say the same thing a thousand ways. We'll exult in the mystical power of voting, but next week, it'll be back to the news ticker's impersonal body counts. So elections? Count me in, I think they're great. But with the rebellious, terrified minority that's driving the insurgency boycotting the polls, let's not pretend that the Ballot Fairy will sprinkle constitution dust on this razed country and out of the ashes will emerge a stable, pluralistic democracy. Iraq's task is monumental, and its solutions anything but telegenic. No one is pretending this is anything but what it was- the first election the Iraqi's have had in 50 years, and a step in the right direction. Obviously Iraqi's are thrilled; most normal Americans are as well. Only the professionally dour would and could feel otherwise. No one thinks the future is all of a sudden going to be easy- quite the opposite. Juan Cole: Iraq now faces many key issues that could tear the country apart, from the issues of Kirkuk and Mosul to that of religious law. James Zogby on Wolf Blitzer wisely warned the US public against another "Mission Accomplished" moment. Things may gradually get better, but this flawed "election" isn't a Mardi Gras for Americans and they'll regret it if that is the way they treat it. Groan. And now for the obligatory Oliver silliness: Pardon me if I've had enough of these Iraqi "turning points". I work in Washington, D.C. so I can't just pretend and make the terrorists go away like the other sheep. Oliver has worked in DC for a year now. Beware the jaded insider. Pissing on The Parade I have sifted through all the Democratic talking points, and here are the two that are going to get the most play. 1.) As voiced by Jeralynn Merrit on MSNBC and as discussed here: "Just because ballots were cast it doesn't mean it is going to lead to a democracy." Of course ballots don't translate directly into a democracy. Saddam Hussein did get 99% of the ballots cast in the last election, and I would hardly argue that Iraq was a democracy. I would, however, stipulate that the franchise is a PRE-REQUISITE for democracy. I am curious- when Democrats make a cake, do they put the icing on first? 2.) "What about the WMD? We went in after the WMD." We went in for WMD as well as a number of other documented reasons that the left now pretend to forget. But this really isn't an issue, because what is an issue is the inconsistency even in the "What about the WMD" argument. Am I to assume that our deep thinkers on the left were in favor of going into get the WMD, seizing/destroying them, and then leaving a broken shell of Iraq? Of course not- so even though there were no WMD, we still need to fix Iraq. Whyat is most annoying about this line of argument is that many on the left were right, and Bush was wrong- we would have to engage in nation-building. But now that Bush and the right have embraced nation building, the left cedes their moral authority and begins screaming to "Bring Home The Troops!" Go figure. Watch for these- Jeralynn is dialed in, she knows the talking points. The talking heads and the Democrats will try to advance these specious arguments in the next couple of days- if you let them.