Monday, October 02, 2006

Hindsight Bias!

Apparently, the neocon apologistas who have been claiming that "No One Could Have Forseen What Has Happened" have some cred with the "liberal-leftist" mainstream media. Or, maybe this is what happens when short attention spans banish memories of anything beyond the current fiscal year or some similar time marker. Appearing in the Washington Post, a news outlet I generally think well of, is this:

Such an incredibly tortured attempt to deny the facts that were so apparent before the attack on Iraq, and to claim that there were no voices trying to warn of the obvious (to me, anyway) wrongness, is a serious maiming of the record. So blatantly in error that I actually sent off, using a rather miffed tone admittedly, Letter-to-Editor of the Post:
"Editor, With all due respect, do you really believe that the million or so people who were marching to protest the then-imminent Disaster In Iraq in January of 2003 were exhibiting hindsight bias? In fact, I was marching in San Francisco not because, as the cynics were saying, because I was a naive simpleton peacenik. I said it at the time, and I say it again to you now; I was marching not because I thought it would prevent the disaster from happening - I was marching precisely to preserve my right later on to say 'I Told You So!'"

Over time I have sent the WaPost a number of letters. I think one was actually printed, but it was probably a slow news day. Enough said.

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