hell’s handmaiden

Can you write for Blogs for Bush and still pen this…

The wonderfully “unbiased” staff of 60-minutes, that bastion of non-partisan, fair and balanced yellow journalism propaganda…

Using the Exception to Define the Rule

… with a straight face?

Apparently so. This last century, though, has proven without a doubt that humanity is capable of supporting all kinds of absurdity, cruelty and outright insanity with a perfectly straight face. Damn us all.

The point of Leo’s article is that, to summarize, the Lib’rals cherry pick the data. You see, “A favorite leftist propaganda tactic is to hunt for exceptions, and then parade the exception around as representative of the majority or at least of a critical mass of thought.” (Again I wonder how one can pen this thought and write for Blogs for Bush at the same time. I would have a siezure from the cognitive disjunct.)

In this case, Appeal for Redress, a “soldiers against the war” organization, has compiled a list of 1600 or so names of Active Duty, Reserve, and Guard personnel who have signed a petition calling for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. B4B reports “1437″ but the number has risen since.

Well, obviously, this can’t be right.

Secondly, even if every signatory was legit, to say that 1,436 soldiers is a “large group” or even relevant when compared to the current 1.5 million active duty military is a stretch of monumental proportions!

Using the Exception to Define the Rule

Unfortunately, as is pointed out to Leo in the first comment to his post…

From the 2006 Military Times Poll:

“Only 35 percent of the military members polled this year said they approve of the way President Bush is handling the war, while 42 percent said they disapproved. The president’s approval rating among the military is only slight ly higher than for the population as a whole. In 2004, when his popularity peaked, 63 percent of the military approved of Bush’s handling of the war. While ap proval of the president’s war lead ership has slumped, his overall approval remains high among the military.”
Down on the War

42 percent of 1.5 million would be about 630,000 troops who disapprove of the way the president has handled this war. Would that be considered a significant number?

Using the Exception to Define the Rule

Now that is cherry picking!

Also…

Just as telling, in this year’s poll only 41 percent of the military said the U.S. should have gone to war in Iraq in the first place, down from 65 percent in 2003. That closely reflects the beliefs of the general population today — 45 percent agreed in a recent USA Today/Gallup poll.

Down on the War

And…

He added, “Part of what we’re seeing is a recognition that the in telligence that led to the war was wrong.”

Down on the War

The poll does not show a military 180 degrees from Bush, and Leo tries to paint this as meaning the military is far more favorable to him than it is. He goes on a “hunt for exceptions” and trumpets those, neglecting the overall trend that the poll supports.

And it does show that vastly more than 1500 military personnel object to this war.

Leo hisself voted at Appeal for Redress, and complains that he was allowed to do so. Hmm… these citizen compaigns depend upon honesty. You, Leo, have demonstrated yours. Thanks for the vote anyway though.

I suppose Appeal for Redress could scan military databases accross the country every time someone votes. Would that make you happy? Maybe the Lib’rals could collect private data about US soldiers? Yeah, that would be nice.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at 10:47 am and is filed under Politics, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.