Say Anything Blog

So a month ago it was “cut and run”, now it’s sensible policy?  I’m starting to think that incoherent self-contradiction is actually part of your marketing strategy, not just a happy accident.

You really can’t tell the difference between pulling out “as soon as practicable” and pulling out “as security forces come online?”

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

You really can’t tell the difference between pulling out “as soon as practicable” and pulling out “as security forces come online?”

modern instances said, So a month ago it was “cut and run”, now it’s sensible policy? I’m starting to think that incoherent self-contradiction is actually part of your marketing strategy, not just a happy accident.

A month ago Murtha was calling for, “immediate re-deployment of U.S. forces from Iraq”. This story here is phased pullout from Iraq. See the difference?

I’m starting to think that incoherent self-contradiction is actually a part of your marketing strategy modern instances, not just an unfortunate and sad accident.

I see, so now you want to add provisions to Murtha’s resolution that weren’t there to begin with.

And answer me this, if the plan really was to pull out after security forces came online...how is this any different from what the President has been pushing all along?

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

It is pure pretense to presume what Murtha meant by his “as soon as is practicable” is “when Iraq is stable and we can withdrawal troops without risking losing everything we have fought for.” Murtha’s own words bely this narrow interpretation.

Indeed, Murtha quite explicitly makes the case (echoed by others on this blog) that

“The continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is “uniting the enemy against us.”

He also keeps quoting a trumped up “80% of Iraqis are strongly opposed to the presence of coalition troops” statistic to buttress this argument, as you may recall.

In any case, Murtha has made it very plain that we are wasting American lives, that the cause is either lost, or that we can do no further,

“Our military has done everything that has been asked of them, the U.S. cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily,” Murtha, a 37-year Marine veteran, said Thursday."It’s time to bring them home.”

MI, this goes back to a comment of mine you shrugged off, but I’d like to know the answer anyway:  If your reading comprehension skills are so damned great, why would you place one phrase in a context so clearly at odds with the much larger body of statements made by Representative Murtha?  This is so at odds to the way we are trained to read non-fiction in the physical science.

Anyway, this argument coming from somebody supposedly trained in literary criticism just boggles the mind.

Anyway, this argument coming from somebody supposedly trained in literary criticism just boggles the mind.

modern instances suffers from cognitive dissonance. It is why he is so easily able to, as you said, “place one phrase in a context so clearly at odds with the much larger body of statements made by Representative Murtha”.

Thus, it is entirely ordinary and usual (and clinical studies prove it time and time again) that when a human is faced with new facts or developments that conflict with existing beliefs, the individual will tend to alter his perception of the incoming facts to match his existing beliefs. That filtering process is vastly preferrable, not to mention more efficient, to discarding one’s core beliefs and rebuilding new ones that are consistent with facts and reality.

That explains modern instance’s situation to a “T”.

[...] This spin Murtha is putting on our draw-down of troops in Iraq (which is already taking place, by the way) makes Iraq look like Vietnam all over again, with America leaving with its tail between its legs after domestic pressure to end the war reached the breaking point. But that just isn’t true. [...]

[...] Sure we’re doing all of this out of self-interest.  After all, the key to protecting our own country from terror threats is to go to the region from whence said terrorism came, topple the rogue terror-sponsoring countries that exist there and install democratic governments of the people in their place.  But as self-serving as our objectives in Iraq (and Afghanistan) may be, there is no denying that we are leaving that country in a better state than we found it. [...]

[...] Indeed, some of our troops are already coming home thanks to the improvement in Iraqi security forces. [...]

[...] Our government has promised the new Iraqi government that our troops will not stay one moment longer than they are wanted in Iraq.  If the Iraqi’s want us to significantly draw down our troop levels over the next year I have little doubt that our government will do that.  Plus, it seems as though this dovetails with announcements for troop withdrawal already made by the Pentagon. [...]