Vincent J. Curtis
October 1, 2011
Reported by Julie Pace of the Associated Press is a story on a speech given by Barack Obama with the headline. “Obama berates rivals, saying president must support all troops.” The details of the story reveal an obvious logical fallacy being employed by president.
“You want to be commander in chief? Start with standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform,” Obama is quoted as saying in support of gay service members to the annual dinner of the Human Rights Council, the nation’s largest gay rights organization.
The AP report goes on to quote Obama, in reference to boos at a Sept 22 Republican debate, “We don’t believe in standing silent when that happens.”
The rhetorical cheapshot at play here is that to support the military means necessarily that one must support each and every member of the military regardless of what they do, or are. That is an example of the logical fallacy of division, i.e., what is true of the whole is also true of the parts.
Substitute “those guilty of a service offence,” or “war criminal” for “gay” in the above argument and the true sense of Obama’s point becomes clear.
Lynndie England was the servicewoman at the center of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison scandal. As a member of the 372 Military Police Company, she was one of eleven who were convicted at Court Martial of torture and prisoner abuse. The thrust of President Obama’s argument would require that he, as commander in chief, has to “stand up” for her and the others convicted since they are, or were, troops.
Obviously, this is not what Obama means. But the fact is Obama crafted an argument against his foes that leaves him open to the charge that, by implication, he must support war criminals and those guilty of grievous service offenses.
This sort of silliness shows a second rate mind at work behind the teleprompter, as well as a desperation in trying to cast the charge of hypocrisy at Obama’s Republican challengers.
