Posted by
Misfit on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 1:06:38 PM
I just received a plea from Townhall.com to financially support the legal defense of Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani with respect to the alleged Haditha massacre. In addition to several logical fallacies used by the message (argumentum ad hominem, argumentum ad misericordiam, and argumentum ad nauseam come to mind), it calls the charges against Lt. Col. Chessani "trumped-up" without justifying the claim.
From a North County Times article describing the charges: "Col. Christopher Conlin makes the recommendation in a report --
obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday -- that calls for Lt.
Col. Jeffrey Chessani to face court-martial for two counts of
dereliction of duty and one count of violation of a lawful order. "He
failed to thoroughly and accurately report and investigate a combat
action that clearly needed scrutiny," Conlin wrote in his
recommendation."
It is entirely possible that Lt. Col. Chessani is being treated as a scapegoat. In fact, I'll bet that he is. But concrete evidence to support that claim was not presented in that message. What was presented was a collection of facts taken out of context, presented in a manner that would seem to appeal to those who don't investigate such matters for themselves.