My Respect for Harvard Just Went Up

And my contempt for the mainstream media just went up, too. A couple of Harvard economists have produced a paper about media support for withdrawal and insurgent attacks. The 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. As such counterinsurgency should consider deterrence and incapacitation rather than simply search and destroy missions.

Hmmm. Or perhaps the search and destroy missions need to take place at the New York Times and NBC? I'm just kidding about that!