The Onion's Fallacy of Argument

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28209

The Onion is a satirical newspaper that makes fun of otherwise serious political content in the present day world. In this article, the author uses the readers assumed knowledge of world events to argue that sovereign nations act for their own benefit and that the reasoning behind international action is often an excuse.
By using Russia as an example of a country gone wrong, the author manages to deflect attention from his real subject, which must be America considering the audience of the Onion. The author’s use of fake quotations from political figures from around the world serves to illustrate a self-centered argument that runs throughout the fake story. Thus, the author is mocking the reasoning given to the public for international action. Rather than admitting that they act in selfish ways, countries often make up reasoning such as the reasoning in the article. A specific example of this that the author is no doubt alluding to is American action in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Much of the rhetoric that comes out of the White House has been very similar to the reasoning given by the author of this article for invading Russia. A main example of this is humanitarian reasons. The main difference between invading Russia and invading Iraq or Afghanistan is that it would clearly not be in the United States’ national interest to invade Russia given their military might. The author banks on the reader realizing this and through comparison, realizing that that the Iraq war is ridiculous and based on selfish self-interest.
The author makes a serious fallacy of argument, however, in this article. He seeks to make an analogy between the obvious ridiculous situation in the article and current US domestic policy. However, the premises of the analogy are false. The author is using a faulty enthymeme to persuade his audience. Essentially, he is say that countries who say that they are using military might to help another country are acting in self interest, thus the US is acting in self-interest in Iraq and Afghanistan. The implied term is that the US is acting in self-interest in Iraq and Afghanistan. This may or may not be true but the author has not proven it in the article. Rather, he has assumed that the readers would make the connection and take it for granted. This type of humorous rhetoric is very common in The Onion. While it is without doubt funny, if one takes the political message to heart without further examination, one will fall prey to a fallacy of logic.