One of the classic debating tricks is something called “attacking a strawman.” It consists of putting forth a flawed argument that the opponent has never made, but implying that she has, and then knocking it down. It allows a cheap rhetorical victory while sidestepping the real issues, and unfortunately, it’s often effective.

That’s exactly what the DEA is doing with their series of commercials in an attempt to convince people of the nonsensical notion that drug use equates to support of terrorism.

The commercial template is a hapless fool attempting to defend his drug use, putting forth dumb arguments, which are easily slapped down by his more intelligent (and virtuous) friend. (And of course, one of the subthemes is that because he’s a drug user, he can’t think well, unlike his teetotaling companion.)

The latest one is what Mr. Idiot calls the “might” loophole. He only “might” be supporting terrorism by using drugs, so it’s OK. This is indeed a dumb argument, which is shot down by simply rephrasing it more graphically: “So, you might be helping terrorists murder kids, or you might be helping them do something so horrible that we can’t even conceive of it.”

Of course, if this were a real debate, rather than a mindless strawman exercise in a propaganda campaign, the appropriate response would be, “Yes, just like when you gas up your car, you “might” be funneling money to the Saudis and their madrassas that teach children to go on Jihad against America, and when you purchase clothes made in Pakistan, you “might” be providing profit to a factory owner who funds similar activities there.”

This whole campaign is stupid, for the reason described above: anything that we purchase has the potential to go to funding nefarious activities. Not all drug purchases do so, any more than all gasoline purchases do so, and to the degree that drug purchases do so, it’s largely because our War on (Some) Drugs has put criminals in charge of the enterprise. It would be just as accurate (indeed, perhaps more so) to say that, given that some people are going to purchase drugs regardless of their legal status, it is the DEA and the federal drug policies that are helping the terrorists.

Apparently, judging by this ad campaign, they don’t have any good arguments. And the need to resort to spending taxpayers’ money in such a blatantly dishonest way is just further evidence of the moral and intellectual vacuity and bankruptcy of those policies.