Via Conservative Grapevine this story in the Washington Times is a big one that will predictably be buried.
Since the Vietnam War, where we won on the ground yet lost the battle of public opinion, many conservatives have claimed defeatist news coverage emboldens our enemies to fight longer and harder.
It would appear now that our logic has been verified by Harvard researchers in a study published in the National Bureau of Economic Research. Turns out there are measurable increases (7 to 10 %) in attacks on civilians and U.S. troops in Iraq following measurable increases in both negative U.S. media coverage of the war and negative statements by politicians. Further bolstering these findings is the fact that attacks increase more sharply in areas with higher exposure to international news.
I don't expect you'll hear a whole lot more about this story so why not pass it on and make sure it makes the rounds.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Can We Say We Told You So?
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3 comments:
I would dispute your claim that we "won on the ground". While we were probably winning on the ground, we were hamstrung on the ground by the limited scope of the operations allowed by the upper command (read Politicians). Had we been able to pursue the Viet-Cong to their bases of operation, outside of Vietnam proper, we may well have won the war and kept Vietnam slightly less capitalistic.
I guess I won't deny your point. "We were winning on the ground" is the better description. I'm pretty confident that while there are some conflicts that aren't winnable, our forces nonetheless can't be decisively defeated man for man.
I think you meant "kept Vietnam slightly MORE capitalistic" though right?
Yes, I think I got caught between slightly more capitalistic and slightly less communistic, and just screwed the whole thing up.
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