Правь, Британия!

[birdwatcher]

Britain’s top army commander said the presence of British troops in Iraq was exacerbating security problems on the ground and they should be withdrawn soon. Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt said the British presence in Iraq also hurt British security interests abroad.

А мы? А мы? А у нас я -- первый (и, наверное, единственный), кто считает, что можно уйти сейчас из Ирака, без катастрофических последствий для безопасности и экономики США.

Comments

[capka3m.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. We can generate a number of reasons why someone would not consider this money 'sunk' (from an optimistic assessment of the situation forecasting a future victory - to a vilest crackpot big oil conspiracy theory where the victory is not important at all). What I meant is, merely, that if from _your_ point of view the venture is a failure, the "we've already put so much money in it" becomes a sunk cost argument and is neither here nor there.

[ireznikov.livejournal.com]

My only concern in this partcular situation that I am not sure if it's a failure or not.
For me personally, a failure is not reaching a set goal in a set timeframe. Right now I may suspect that current administration failed by looking at the goals and timeframes that they presented to the public. What their real goals and timeframes are - I don't know. However, if we pull out right now, whoever makes the decision admits that it's a failure (and I am fine with that).

From my point of view, this operation hasn't failed, as my timeframe for getting to their publically announced goals is much more flexible. What I am saying is, this was a mistake from the very beginning - but not something completely "undoable". It's just bad planning and forecasting.

[capka3m.livejournal.com]

> For me personally, a failure is not reaching a set goal in a set timeframe.

I think there is one more element of the triple constraint missing in your definition :) Scope (aka goal) / schedule / resources. So, what resources are you ready to throw at accomplishing this goal? In this war, just like in Vietnam, the real question to me seems to be - what are the resources we are ready to expend? So, from my point of view, it is a failure because we have already spent more than I would have been prepared to, with no visible progress (in fact, quite the opposite, a quick deterioration of the situation). Maybe we did not use or resources right, but that's beside the point now.

So I do not want to see it in the terms of doable/undoable. It might well have been doable but it ain't no more.