Atrios has posted a memo written by Republican pollster’and host of his own show on MSNBC’Frank Luntz detailing talking points for those wishing to convince Americans of the value of the War in Iraq. There are a few gems in there including, “No speech about homeland security or Iraq should begin without a reference to 9/11” and:
But the following most caught my eye:
We’ve seen the same ideology of murder in the killing of 241 Marines in Beirut, the first attack on the World Trade Center, in the destruction of two embassies in Africa, in the attack on the USS Cole, and in the merciless horror inflicted upon thousands of innocent men and women and children on September the 11th, 2001.”
— President George W. Bush
I may be misreading this, but it appears that Luntz is suggesting’and that Bush is actually saying’that the proof that the War in Iraq is connected to the “Wider War on Terror” lies in the fact that U.S. soldiers in Iraq are being attacked by persons using similar tactics to those deployed by terrorists.
Or, to put it another way: we’re being attacked by terrorists now that we’ve invaded Iraq, therefore the War in Iraq is part of the War on Terror.
This afternoon I finished reading Voltaire’s Candide, so when I read that little loop-de-loop of argumentation, I couldn’t help but be reminded of some of the things said by Voltaire’s rather optimistic hero.
After having killed a Jesuit priest’who happens to be the brother of his mistress, Cun’gonde’Candide flees into the forests of South America with his loyal companion, Cacambo. In order to facilitate their escape, Cacambo made Candide wear the robes of the slain Jesuit. In the forest, the pair are captured by a tribe of cannibals who want to kill and eat Candide because the believe him to be a Jesuit. Cacambo explains the true nature of the situation to the cannibals who see the light of reason and release Candide and Cacambo. After being freed and given gifts, “Candide could not weary of exclaiming over his preservation.”
Voltaire’s intent was to lampoon the more extreme applications of a school of thought known as philosophical optimism. This philosophy was proposed by Leibnitz and is, in brief, the idea that all things in the universe, being created by God, are ordered for the best, or that such things are ordered in such a way as to produce the best of all possible outcomes. Thus, this world is the best of all possible worlds, for how could it be otherwise?
At the end of Candide, after the eponymous hero has gone through a series of rather nasty events’events which were, almost invariably, avoidable had Candide not been a philosophical optimist’after which none of Candide’s goals or efforts at happiness are preserved, his philosopher companion, Pangloss, offers this bit of good cheer:
So you see, the War in Iraq is part of the War on Terror because we have encouraged terrorists to attack the U.S. in Iraq. This proves, quite conclusively I’d say, that the War in Iraq is the best of all possible wars.
So does this mean that 9/11 was justified? After all, we did go try to wipe out al-Qaida afterward.
excellent!
Funny you should bring up Candide, a book I had to read in High School and that I enjoyed tremendously. So much so that it has stayed with me through the years and I often think about it whenever I hear an American state categorically that America is the best of all possible worlds.
So does this mean that 9/11 was justified?
It means that 9/11 was the best of all possible terrorist attacks.
Since I have been required to write an essay for the class Hit. 101 based on the end of Candide I would like to know, what you guys think Candide meant by his last sentence That is very well put, said Candide, but we must cultivate our garden. I will greatly appreciate it if could you please respond to this question. Thank you