Antiwar Reporting Emboldens Terrorists (Duh)
Charles Johnson
Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 1:26 pm PDT • Views: 357
It’s the triumph of the obvious. Note to US News and World Report: we don’t need a paper by Harvard economists to tell us this.
Are Iraqi Insurgents Emboldened by Antiwar Reporting?
Are insurgents in Iraq emboldened by voices in the news media expressing dissent or calling for troop withdrawals from Iraq? The short answer, according to a pair of Harvard economists, is yes.
In a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the authors are quick to point out numerous caveats to their findings, based on data from mid-2003 through late 2007. Yet, their results show that insurgent groups are not devoid of reason and unresponsive to outside pressures and stimuli. “It shows that the various insurgent groups do respond to incentives and shows that a successful counter insurgency strategy should take that reality into account,” says one of the paper’s coauthors, Jonathan Monten, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
The paper “Is There an ‘Emboldenment’ Effect in Iraq? Evidence From the Insurgency in Iraq” concludes the following:
—In the short term, there is a small but measurable cost to open public debate in the form of higher attacks against Iraqi and American targets.
—In periods immediately after a spike in “antiresolve” statements in the American media, the level of insurgent attacks increases between 7 and 10 percent.
—Insurgent organizations are strategic actors, meaning that whatever their motivations, religious or ideological, they will respond to incentives and disincentives.
Frank says: