would have had to have been?

Asked Jun 18 '20 at 12:51

Active Jun 18 '20 at 13:55

Viewed 126 times

in the following string:

... a minuscule proportion of the millions that necessarily would have had to have been slaughtered within the overkill scenario.

what does "would have had to have been" mean ?

edited Jun 18 '20 at 13:55

Edwin Ashworth

asked Jun 18 '20 at 12:51

user389083

That's not a sentence. – tchrist Jun 18 '20 at 13:32
1

Imagine a Ministry of Food & Agriculture official, Mr Brown, defending the fact that 10 000 cattle have recently been slaughtered to combat a foot-and-mouth epidemic, in 199x. "We could have chosen the overkill option. But we went with the traced-cull option. We would have had to slaughter millions had we chosen the overkill option." // Now imagine a newsreader reporting this: "10 000 cattle have been put down; according to Mr Brown, this is a minuscule proportion of the millions that necessarily would have had to have been slaughtered within the overkill scenario." – Edwin Ashworth Jun 18 '20 at 14:01
1

It means exactly the same as I would have meant if I'd written *...would have been slaughtered within the overkill scenario* - or even just *...would be slaughtered..., come to that. Who cares whether they were slaughtered of necessity* or not, in such contexts? – FumbleFingers Jun 18 '20 at 15:59
@Ashworth, I may not understand what you mean, could you explain it in a simpler way? – user389083 Jun 19 '20 at 04:05

0 Answers0