Burden of proof
posted on 11. July 2003 at 06:14 PM
Time to get political for a moment. Anil Dash linked to this Salon article, quoting spokesman Ari Fleischer. I couldn't believe what he supposedly said, so I looked up the official transcript.
PRESS GAGGLE WITH ARI FLEISCHER TO THE TRAVEL POOL
Q: Does this increase the onus or the need to come up with significant discoveries of WMD that so far haven't been found?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think the American people continue to express their support for ridding the world of Saddam Hussein based on just cause, knowing that Saddam Hussein had biological and chemical weapons that were unaccounted for that we're still confident we'll find. I think the burden is on those people who think he didn't have weapons of mass destruction to tell the world where they are.
The burden is on those people who think he didn't have weapons of mass destruction?!
importantly, that last "they" doesn't mean the WMDs which justified the war, it means the weapons which are known to have disappeared.
Still the war isn't justified, but unfortunately this quote isn't the bonehead comment it appears to be. Note the next sentence which inconveniently clarifies the referent of "they" -
We know he had them in the '90s, he used them. So just because they haven't yet been found doesn't mean they didn't exist. ...If they think they were destroyed, the burden is on them to explain when he destroyed them and where he destroyed them.
but to be clear on my position, pretending that "historical weapons of undetermined fate" is equivalent to "currently existing but hidden weapons of awesome power" is the lowest irrational justification, and Ari and his friends are dangerous scumbags who twist meaning to justify something quite terrible.
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