Many of the Facebookers among you will recognize a new meme that is occupying status updates this week. Disappointed by the degree of credit that President Obama is receiving for the death of Osama bin Laden, some of our less thoughtful friends are updating their status like this:
Let's be clear on this: OBAMA did NOT kill Bin Laden. An American soldier, who Obama just a few weeks ago was debating on whether or not to PAY, did!! Obama just happened to be the one in office when our soldiers finally found OBL and took him out. This is NOT an Obama victory, but an AMERICAN victory!! REPOST IF YOU AGREE!!
There are many things that could be criticized about this statement. I want to focus on one fallacy of reasoning that is committed here and an appropriate reply to it.