It Will Take 100 Years to Pay Off the Iraq War
For thousands of American families who lost loved ones as a consequence of this failed and illegal war, the ‘debt’ will never be ‘paid off.’
You realize the actual purpose of the Liberation of Iraq of 2003 lasted from 19 March 2003 to 1 May 2003, and signaled the start of the conflict that later came to be known as the Iraq War, which was dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the United States. The invasion consisted of 21 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland, invaded Iraq and deposed the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. The invasion phase consisted primarily of a conventionally-fought war which concluded with the capture of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad by American forces.
The objective was achieved .. so why did it cost 3,000 more lives and $600 billion ?
These COMMENTS are proven by Harvard studies to have contributed to the cost...
A Harvard study found here
THE "EMBOLDENMENT EFFECT" asked:
"Are insurgents in Iraq emboldened by voices in the news media expressing dissent or calling for troop withdrawals from Iraq?
The short answer is YES!!! according to Radha Iyengar, a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in health policy
research at Harvard and Jonathan Monten of the Belfer Center at the university's Kennedy School of Government.
STUDY ABSTRACT
Are insurgents affected by information on US casualty sensitivity? 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.
On a related note, the New York Times reports that the media aren't paying as much attention to Iraq as they used to:
Media attention on Iraq began to wane after the first months of fighting, but as recently as the middle of last year, it was still the most-covered topic.
Since then, Iraq coverage by major American news sources has plummeted to about one-fifth of what it was last summer, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
If the Harvard study is right, we may be looking at a virtuous circle: Less violence means less media coverage, which in turn means less violence, says the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps one day we'll wake up to discover that America won the war in Iraq months earlier, but no one noticed because the reporters were all busy with other things.
Victory in Iraq Day, November 22, 2008
So when these comments were posted and published.. will any of you be honest enough to admit, the comments certainly did not make US troops happy
and DEFINITELY did as the Harvard study stated: "emboldenment".. do more killings of troops over 6 more years!
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid(D)
"The war is lost, the surge is not accomplishing anything " 40,800 Google results
U.S. Rep. John Murtha(D)
"Our troops killed innocent civilians in cold blood,”
39,600 Google results
Senator Kerry (D)
"American soldiers going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children." 92,500 Google results
Durbin (D)
"must have been done by Nazis, Soviets"--action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners. 127,000 Google results
Senator Obama said "troops are air-raiding villages and killing civilians," 94,300 Google results
So Iraq deaths and cost continued because the above remarks HELPED ONLY the terrorists and they were emboldened to prolong!
