Tendentious Antiwar Scholarship

Campus Report ^ | April 1, 2008 | Michael P. Tremoglie

[bs9021]

Tendentious Antiwar Scholarship

by: Michael P. Tremoglie, April 01, 2008

The mainstream media is aghast and agog reporting yet another study, from another expert, claiming how wasteful the war in Iraq is, how Bush lied, and how the war is killing the country.

This study is contained in a book titled, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, authored by economist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes. The authors worked for the Clinton administration. Stiglitz was the former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors and Bilmes was also an economic adviser.

Newspapers such as the UK Guardian have prominently reported this book’s conclusions that the “true cost” of the Iraq War is $3 trillion dollars and that the Bush administration deceived the American people about this cost.

Yet, what was not reported, except in a book review by Tunku Varadarajan, in the September 2007 Financial Times, was that the authors are ardent opponents of the Iraq war. Varadarajan quoted the authors saying in their book, “By now it is clear that the US invasion of Iraq was a terrible mistake. …we both ardently opposed the war and were against it from the start.”

Indeed, Stiglitz wrote this antiwar screed for Project Syndicate in January 2003, before the war began: [1][1] “…the war costs will be offset by expenditure cuts elsewhere. Investments in education, health, research, and the environment will almost inevitably be crowded out. …Obviously, if this military adventure were in fact necessary to maintain security or to preserve freedom, as its advocates and promoters proclaim—and if it were to prove as successful as its boosters hope—then the cost might still be worth it. But that is another matter...

[SoldierDad]

And, why should anyone consider what these two people say as anything other than liberal tripe?

[vpintheak]

When this book makes it to American MSM, you can be sure that the authors backgrounds will not be mentioned, and their convoluted opinion will be treated as the gospel truth.

[Doctor Raoul]

Similarly, the guy who wrote the book claiming Vietnam vets weren't spit on by hippies is aone of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War hippies himself.

Guess it would be too much to expect Hitler to not deny the Holocast...

[Doctor Raoul]

The reason for bogus polls, studies and books is that even liberals don’t believe their own beliefs. They need the reassurance from bogus polls, studies and books. They lack the courage of their own convictions.