Introduction of an Irrelevant Issue (Red Herring)

The introductory paragraphs on common types of logical fallacies discusses how "One of the commonest strategies is the introduction of an irrelevant issue...[that] serves only to distract the reader" (337-338). This fallacy is also known as a Red Herring or Ignoratio Elenchi, which translates to "ignorance of refutation."

As this is one of the most common types of fallacies, examples abound. My favorite example is that of the "Chewbacca Defense" ala Southpark, but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presents us with a more culturally important example. He has consistently denied that the Holocaust during World War II actually happened. I have linked a clip of an interview where Katie Couric presents him with a photograph of a German concentration camp, and asks him, "Is this photo a lie, is this a fabrication?" And rather than answer her question directly, he avoids the question entirely, posing his own question. He proposes that we focus on all of the 60 (or so) million people who died during that time, not just that set of people. He introduces a set of information that is indirectly involved with the issue of the Holocaust.

Now why exactly has he presented us with this relevant--but not to the question he was specifically asked--information? Well, it is difficult to discern his exact motivations, but he has consistently derided the people of Israel, called for an end to their nation, and is open about his support of groups in the West Bank and Gaza strip, such as Hamas, that our country's government has labeled terrorist organizations. (Though of course a further complication is that this "terrorist organization" was fairly democratically elected. But I digress...) To suggest that the Jewish people were given the area of Israel after World War II because of egregious suffering inflicted upon them would would give too much legitimacy to the Israeli state, according to his world view.