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May 21, 2006
Don't Know Much About History, ...
Absolutely horrifying behavior from these trusted allies of ours.
UPDATE: The Saudi ambassador to the United States responds.
All of this chatter about what Saudi textbooks really say is starting to look silly. Somebody who has access to these books -- if the Saudi ambassador is to be believed, any of us could easily gain access to them -- should just scan a bunch of pages from these books, along with their copyright dates, and post them on a blog.
Posted by Eric at May 21, 2006 9:47 PM
Comments
Eric, this is not even close to my area of expertise, and I'm not a big fan of the Saudi culture as I understand it, to put it mildly, but at least take a look at this.
Posted by: Ann Bartow at May 22, 2006 12:45 PM
Ann,
I can't remember its name, but isn't there an informal fallacy in dwelling on the agenda of the person making an statement rather than on the accuracy of the statement itself?
Posted by: David Marshall at May 22, 2006 9:07 PM
David,
One of the assertions made by the post I linked to is that Nina Shea has not made the textbooks she referenced available for independent evaluation and translation. In concert with her political positions, this is a reason to be cautious about the representations she makes. She may be absolutely correct in what she says, but given her larger agenda, it seems prudent to scrutinize her claims.
Posted by: Ann Bartow at May 23, 2006 9:16 AM
Ann--
Thanks for the defense. I couldn't have said it better myself.
David--
It's only a fallacy if one claims to falsify a statement by pointing to the speaker's agenda. I haven't said Shea is wrong, I've pointed out that we have only her word as evidence.
And don't forget the "argument from authority" fallacy. Don't assume this is true just because it's in the Washington Post.
Posted by: gordo at May 24, 2006 9:40 PM