Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

October 19, 2011

Philosophers Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein have described an error of logic they call the ?Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy,? which is based on the proverbial marksman who shoots first, then draws a bull?s-eye around the bullet hole.  In similar fashion, politicians responsible for conspicuous failures can be expected to redefine their goals after the fact in order to claim a success. This applies not only to routine bureaucratic ineptitude, but also to matters of literal life and death.

In early October, a drone attack in Yemen killed 16-year-old U.S. citizen Adbulrahman al-Awlaki and his 17-year-old cousin. Awlaki had originally gone to Yemen in search of his father, Anwar al-Awlaki, who had been murdered by the U.S. government by a drone strike about two weeks earlier.

The elder Awlaki was said to be involved in terrorism, but he was never formally charged, let alone tried and convicted before being summarily executed. The younger Awlaki was never accused of any wrong-doing.

The Obama administration circulated the story that the 16-year-old was actually an adult ?suspected? of being a ?militant,? thereby redefining the killing as a strategic success.

If a president can murder anybody at whim, why can?t he invent a justification after the fact?

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.