Posted on 03/15/2008 6:46:10 AM PDT by jdm
Can it be empirically proven that the Libtard Left in alliance with the Democrat Party are actually emboldening our enemies by trashing our war effort and the efforts of our soldiers?
For us Poli/Sci International Relations geeks, polls and surveys and studies are something we end up immersing ourselves in somewhere after the beginning of our masters work and we emerge out of it right after our Ph. D dissertation. We spend our time analyzing (in the abstract) things like; "whether or not post-modern Marxism contributed to the perceived downfall of the idea of useful socialism and the effect it had on native peoples in sub-Saharan Africa in the immediate post colonial era."
Yeah, I know, the sure cure for insomnia.... Almost fell asleep in a puddle of drool just writing that part.
But every once in awhile, a piece of research comes along that sounds the horn of truth that we all know to be true, but they back it up with some good research and facts and figures...
The National Bureau of Economic Research has published an interesting paper by Radha Iyengar at the Center for Government and International Studies at Harvard University, and Jonathan Monten, an International Security Program Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs with the Kennedy School of Government.
And they posit an interesting question... Are insurgents affected by information on US casualty sensitivity?
The answer they found was something we already know...
Their abstract from the website was:
Using data on attacks and variation in access to international news across Iraqi provinces, we identify an "emboldenment" effect by comparing the rate of insurgent attacks in areas with higher and lower access to information about U.S news after public statements critical of the war. We find in periods after a spike in war-critical statements, insurgent attacks increases by 5-10 percent. The results suggest that insurgent groups respond rationally to expected probability of US withdrawal. As such, counterinsurgency should consider deterrence and incapacitation rather than simply search and destroy missions.
I do not agree with the last premise in that statement (emphasis mine), because I think you have to have both strategies (Kinetic and non-Kinetic) in order to effectively destroy an insurgency. That is a topic for another day.
That notwithstanding, the researchers findings in their study were:
First, the findings suggest that there is an explicit and quantifiable cost to public debate during wartime in the form of increased attacks. Based on these results, it appears that Iraqi insurgent groups believe that when the U.S. political landscape is more uncertain, initiating a higher level of attacks increases the likelihood that the U.S. will reduce the scope of its engagement in the conflict.
Second, the insurgent response to low resolve periods may not represent an overall increase in the total number of attacks, but rather a change in the timing of attacks. Because it may be difficult and costly to increase the frequency of attacks in a particular time period, insurgent groups may only seek to do this when the returns are sufficiently high. New information about U.S. cost-sensitivity increases the perceived return to violence and thus insurgent groups condense the violence they would have committed over several weeks into a shorter time horizon.
Third, regardless of whether the observed effect represents an overall increase or intertemporal substitution, the evidence in this study indicates that insurgent groups are strategic actors that respond to the incentives created by the policies and actions of the counterinsurgent force, rather than groups driven by purely ideological concerns with little sensitivity to costs.
And finally...
The arguments and evidence presented in this paper suggest that insurgent groups do appear to respond to U.S. cost-sensitivity. The result is that insurgents attack more frequently and kill or injure more U.S. service men and women.
The salient point, is when cowardly Democrats, empty headed movie stars, drugged up delusional hippies or phony soldiers step in front of news cameras and say things like "The Surge is a failure" or "The Iraqis have to step up and do more" or "our troops murdered those people in cold blood because of the stress they are under" the Democrat Party, the Code Pink freaks, The ANSWER Crowd, et. al. cause the death of more American Soldiers by emboldening our enemies to attack us and to continue to fight on, in the hopes of driving us from the battlefield.
I know that world class losers like Medea Benjamin, Jack Murtha, Harry Reid or Jeese Beauchamp won't ever get the point of their traitorous comments and I will probably see pigs flying around the moon before any of them will apologize for their statements.
But I do want the IVAW to remember this study and it's conclusions when they start their Winter Soldier (Redux) Testimony farce and tell stories about how they saw (insert war crime here) and participated in (insert war crime here) and I want them especially to think about all of their comrades (some that I am certain they are still friends with) who are still walking patrol in Diyala, Muqdadiyah, and Anbar and conducting operations in Musa Qala, Zormat, Kolagu, Bermel and the Korengal.
I want them to know that we can prove not only anecdotally, but empirically, that the things they say can and will have an effect on the actions of our enemies in our fight against them.
And like the Swift Boat Vets, we too will not forget....
bookmark
I want to see a poll of WWTVF who would terrorists vote for from our three major candidates. Maybe Zogby could tackle this one?
show me potato salad!
The AWAKENING in Iraq was based on sudden realization of how much Iraqis were suffering across the board and the true intent of the insurgents.... to TALIBANIZE IRAQ with foreign leadership.... The internal conflict in Iraq of Sunni Shiite and Kurd is not going to go away. The solution is political. The most critical event now is effective political leadership uniting the country and a unified government in Iraq. In my opinion the Sadr Brigade is just waiting for us to leave and then will try to take over....
As far as news and American will goes.... I doubt the terror leadership relies on the media for timing and intensity. I think it is more opportunistic and in direct relation to the application of our assets...... and intel. We squeeze in Baghdad.... they move to Mosul or another locale... Once there they mobilize their resources and look for cost effectiveness in applying resources... So logistics plays a part in timing and number of events. One thing for sure is that once the intel network is well established (the natives turn in the bad guys) the insurgent days are numbered.... they can not function without popular cooperation and support.
The only way to deal with terrorism is to kill enough of them, discredit their leaders (mullahs now realize that for their religion business to expand across muslim nations... they have to get rid of the USA presence... they are coming out against jihad) and provide an alternative..... peaceful practice of religion and economic opportunity. Islamoterror comes from clever manipulation of religiously motivated zealots... Perpetuation of it comes from the madrassas and recruiting. The manifestation of the terror we see today is a result of a well funded, well organized structure that took 50 years to establish. It would seem reasonable to take min 50 years to destabilize and remove it. If you use 2001 as the start we may be done by 2051...
If the Libs get power in the USA it may never be completed and the terrorists will have won.
I'm none of the above, but that statement is anything but "empty-headed." The hajis need to police their own. We can't, won't, and shouldn't be there forever.
They DO, however, pay attention to our news over there. It seems like anyone over there with a TV has a satellite dish, and they get all kinds of channels, with several Arab news channels commenting on the U.S.
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