Editorial Article Fallacy Analysis, Essay Example

The 2013 New York Times online article titled “No Nukes on the Korean Peninsula” provides many examples of fallacies that are commonly employed in persuasive arguments. The author is clearly against the idea of nuclear determent on behalf of South Korea in response to the threats issued by the North. There is plenty of support offered for this perspective, but the editorial feels rigid and somewhat biased, leaving little room for the reader to gain an accurate understanding of the situation. Further analysis suggests that the use of several deceptive strategies may be the reason for this suspicion-raising first impression.

The most prominent fallacious technique in this article, and in many others in recent years, is blatantly appealing to the fear that is rampant in a post-terrorism society. North Korea is immediately framed as a brazen lunatic that could destroy the world at any moment, even though one of the final admissions is that the country is not likely to start a war. This flip-flop in positions is a good example of another deceptive strategy in hedging one’s bet. Fear is also important in establishing the idea of a nuclear South Korea as a bad idea. While more nukes are not exactly great for the planet, there is certainly evidence that having such a device can provide a political advantage without the need to deploy it. It is also suggested at one point that nuclear arms are obviously the wrong answer, which is an assumption that begs the question and creates a third obvious fallacy. Two final examples of deception in this article are the generalizations made that compare the vastly different scenarios leading to American and Russian nuclear weapons reductions to the Korean situation, and throwing in some statistics in the form of U.S. troop counts in South Korea that are actually quite irrelevant when considering the logistics nightmare that emerged from the Iraq conflict. It appears that the author relied heavily on these tools, rather than actual information.

Reference

New York Times (2013). No nukes on the Korean peninsula. The Opinion Pages. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/opinion/no-nukes-on-the-korean- peninsula.html?hp&_r=0 [Accessed: 18 Mar 2013].