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Watch James Carville on his calling Bill Richardson Judas Iscariot

John McCain, Iraq, and the Eyewitness Fallacy Posted March 27, 2008 | 12:44 PM (EST) Read More: Hillary Clinton Iraq, Iraq, Iraq Five Years Of War, Iraq Surge, Iraq Troop Withdrawal, Iraq War, Joe Lieberman And John McCain, Joe Lieberman Iraq, John McCain Iraq Surge, Malcolm Muggeridge, McCain Iraq, McCain Iraq 100 Years, Mccain Iraq Visit, War In Iraq, Breaking Politics News stumbleupon :John McCain, Iraq, and the Eyewitness Fallacy digg: John McCain, Iraq, and the Eyewitness Fallacy reddit: John McCain, Iraq, and the Eyewitness Fallacy del.icio.us: John McCain, Iraq, and the Eyewitness Fallacy Buzz up! John McCain's glowing post-visit assessment of conditions in Iraq, and Hillary Clinton's hyperbolically harrowing recollections of her 1996 trip to Bosnia both stand as shining examples of what the British writer Malcolm Muggeridge dubbed "the eyewitness fallacy." In a brilliant essay, Muggeridge described public figures of strong conviction throughout history -- many of them greatly admired and well-meaning -- who, in eyewitness accounts, saw what they wanted to see, and became what they wanted to be. * Email * Print * Comments Buzz up!on Yahoo! "They must believe a lie who see with, not through, the eye," Blake wrote. Muggeridge took this one step further, saying that many eyewitnesses see things with the glass eye they have fixed into their skulls -- and then fervently believe what this glass eye registers. Surely McCain was seeing the "surge is working" glass eye he has fixed in his skull when he told a town hall crowd this week, "We're succeeding. I don't care what anybody says." And McCain backed up his claims with what he clearly considers his trump card: "I've seen the facts on the ground." Well, he was just in Iraq for the eighth time since the war began, so he must know what he's talking about, right? Or was he merely seeing what he wanted to see, in order to become what he so desperately wants to be? The most memorable example of McCain seeing what he wanted to see, of course, was his infamous stroll through Baghdad's central market last April, which he offered as proof of improved security. Remember the facts on the ground eyewitness account of his traveling companion, Rep. Mike Pence? It was just like "a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime," reported Pence. Take away the 100 soldiers in armored Humvees and the three Blackhawk helicopters and two Apache gunships circling above and his comparison was spot on. Rep. Lindsay Graham, who accompanied McCain and Pence ("I bought five rugs for five bucks," he said of the market), returned home and later predicted that, based on what he'd witnessed firsthand, "within the next weeks, not months, there will be a major breakthrough" on political reconciliation. Given that Graham had seen the facts on the ground, it's shocking how that major breakthrough failed to break through.

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