Gambling With Our Soldiers’ Lives

Posted on January 7, 2007
| buzz-it! | Huff it!

A current must-read is “Why Hawks Win,” by Daniel Kahneman and Jonathan Renshon, in the Jan./Feb issue of Foreign Policy. Kahneman was featured today on NPR’s “Weekend Edition.”

If you don’t read the whole article, skim to the end subhead, “Double or Nothing.” What the authors are clear about is that there are psychological biases common to us all that favor an optimistic view of the use of force, and an aversion to making concessions, accepting an adversary’s concessions, and to admitting failure.

There is a strong suggestion that the administration would favor delaying defeat in Iraq, if the cost is not much greater to them than a more immediate admission of defeat — even if the cost to the soldiers and their families is much higher.

Joe Biden made the same suggestion this week, when he asserted that the Bush administration was seeking, ~~with a troop surge,~~ with an escalation of the war, to delay defeat for a future administration.