Kidnapping Economics

StrategyPage: The Economic Weapon

At least five of the fifty or so foreigners who have been kidnapped, have been killed, most of the others have been released. None of the kidnappers have been given their demands (usually that this country or that pull their troops out of Iraq.) One effect the kidnapping spree has had is to slow the economic reconstruction. The Iraqi economy had been experiencing double digit growth so far this year, but with so many of the foreign workers and technical experts afraid to travel, a lot of projects are stalled, or slowed down. The increase of attacks on truck traffic has slowed down delivery of building materials and equipment, which has disrupted construction schedules. This has been noticed by the population, and whatever enthusiasm there was for the “brave Iraqi resistance fighting the evil foreign occupation” is fading.

Interesting if true. Public opinion in Iraq is hard enough to guage; how one knows the opinions of a city under seige escapes me.

FILED UNDER: Iraq War, ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. legion says:

    Somehow I’m skeptical that the average Iraqi-in-the-street will connect the construction slowdowns to the kidnappings. If anything, I think it’ll give them one more reason to be ticked off at us.

    Makes you wonder if the kidnappers wanted it that way…

  2. Gabe Posey says:

    I think the average Iraqi doesn’t care for these insurgents. In fact, I’d be pissed off if I knew that people in my city were causing unnecessary harm by their actions. In Montgomery, we call those people politicians.