Knee Deep in the Hooah!

Hillary Clinton is recycling some old logic that held true when it was first stated. This sentiment of increased violence made a lot of sense when the Surge was in full swing. Al Qaeda was on the run and they were experiencing major defeats at every front. Yes, the violence increased for a short time, but it was squelched quickly by the strategy, and it stayed relatively calm until now.

Clinton tells Iraq: ‘Bombs are a sign of success’
Published Date: 26 April 2009
By Matthew Lee
Excerpt:

US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday that last week’s deadly bombings in Iraq are a sign that extremists are afraid the Iraqi government is succeeding.

Making her first trip to Iraq as America’s top diplomat, Clinton said the country has made great strides despite the recent violence that killed at least 159 people on Thursday and Friday.

“I think that these suicide bombings… are unfortunately, in a tragic way, a signal that the rejectionists fear that Iraq is going in the right direction,” Clinton told reporters travelling aboard her plane ahead of her unannounced visit to Baghdad.

Article

The increase in violence that we saw during the peak of the surge was an obvious response to a huge change in strategy and it was following a lot of documented defeats of the enemy. When those supporting the war efforts put forth the argument that the sharp increase in violence was due to the success of the surge, we were laughed at by the left – the same left who are now trying to borrow the argument.

The problem is the increase in violence we are seeing today is due to a different strategy, and not the surge. It is also not a sign of success as Clinton would like for you to believe. It is a sign of an enemy being emboldened.

Remember a little over a year ago when a very well conducted, but very little noticed article and paper appeared on the scene that correlated antiwar reporting and insurgent attacks?

I wrote an article about it then.

The article asserts, with data, that insurgents in Iraq do not exist in a vaccuum. They are, indeed, dynamic in the sense that they pay attention to the news and what is being reported. Today I read at Jawa about the outright support of terrorists by this Administration, and in recent news we have watched this Administration target our Veterans of this war, as well as talk up the torture and abuse propaganda. Now, if insurgents get all fired up about a few crazy hippies in pink shouting ridiculous antiwar sentiments, how do you think they will respond to a POTUS who is openly aggressive against this Country?

I believe Clinton is wrong. The increase in violence is not due to more successes at this point. I believe it is due to change in strategy by this Administration — and that strategy being to put America on her weakest foot possible. Who couldn’t resist taking a swing?

Are Iraqi Insurgents Emboldened by Antiwar Reporting?

Economists say their study, with caveats, finds some linkages

By Alex Kingsbury

Posted March 12, 2008

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.

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