whutTHEYsay
Gold Member
- Jul 9, 2014
- 28,259
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What a foolish thing it was for Healthmyths to have cited the link to that 'emboldment effect' study from Harvard.
He obviously did not read it. He took the WSJ summary to heart.
http://people.rwj.harvard.edu/~riyengar/insurgency.pdf
Its bad when an American does not read some study and then lie about it proving that dissent and concern about the costs of the unnecessary Iraq war is what made the war drag on and on.
Just got to post that last line from the study one more time.
"it is not possible to determine if public criticism is on balance bad. "
This statement provides an excellent perspective on withdrawing troops fron Iraq for those of us that want It.
"In the context of counterinsurgency campaigns, an unconditional commitment by an external force may have an unintended effect of reducing the incentive for the host nation to take greater responsibility for its own security (Byman 2006; Posen 2006)."
He obviously did not read it. He took the WSJ summary to heart.
An important qualification to this empirical finding is that it does not represent a full account of the costs and benefits of open public debate about military strategy, or address the overall effect of public debate on the likelihood of defeating an insurgency. In the context of counterinsurgency campaigns, an unconditional commitment by an external force may have an unintended effect of reducing the incentive for the host nation to take greater responsibility for its own security (Byman 2006; Posen 2006). Extensive empirical research also suggests that open debate, independent scrutiny of official policy, and transparency improves the quality of decisions in democracies relative to closed political systems, and may at times be necessary to force changes in a flawed war strategy (e.g., Snyder 1991). Public criticism and policy reviews may therefore be net beneficial if the resulting improvements in strategy produce an overall reduction in attacks and fatalities.
Without knowing how to weigh the gains from open debate against the cost of revealing information about the US sensitivity to costs, it is not possible to determine if public criticism is on balance bad.
http://people.rwj.harvard.edu/~riyengar/insurgency.pdf
Well during Liberation of Iraq we had Members of Congress HELPING the terrorists !
I expect our enemies to lie about what our politicians say, not Americans.
Its bad when an American does not read some study and then lie about it proving that dissent and concern about the costs of the unnecessary Iraq war is what made the war drag on and on.
Just got to post that last line from the study one more time.
"it is not possible to determine if public criticism is on balance bad. "
This statement provides an excellent perspective on withdrawing troops fron Iraq for those of us that want It.
"In the context of counterinsurgency campaigns, an unconditional commitment by an external force may have an unintended effect of reducing the incentive for the host nation to take greater responsibility for its own security (Byman 2006; Posen 2006)."