Non sequitor

According to my Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary: “Non sequitor: An inference that does not follow from the premises.” In other words, it’s not logical.

For example, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld last week trying to justify the Iraq war by invoking high gas prices and how rich they would have made Saddam Hussein had he still been in charge in Iraq.

Huh? Mr. Rumsfeld, I think you’ve somehow gotten the cause and the effect turned around here: Gas prices are high because of the war you started to take Saddam out, so how could Saddam have conceivably benefited?

What disturbs me is that you might actually think I’m so stupid that I’ll buy this twisted logic. What disturbs me even more is that you might be so stupid or delusional that you actually believe it.