How To Think Badly

Bad thinking doesn’t change. If you recall, at the start of the second war against Iraq, we were told that Iraq was amassing weapons of mass destruction. The fact that we couldn’t find any weapons was presented as proof that such weapons existed and were well hidden.

The UN had inspected Iraq and found no such weapons, according to my newspaper, so there was no rationale to attack Iraq (if you could read). Nevertheless, the Republican and Democratic establishments supported bad reasoning and a new and idiotic war.

Jumping back to the start of World War Two, we imprisoned Americans of Japanese descent in California (but not in Hawaii) on the grounds that they might be saboteurs. As one general wrote at the time, “The very fact that no sabotage has taken place to date is a disturbing and confirming indication that such action will be taken.”

In short, the lack of evidence that something is going on is proof that something is going on.