There was recently a running discussion at Needlenose comparing the Bush/Petraeus effort to extend the Iraq occupation to the desperation of gamblers begging for more chips so they can stay at the table.
Fubar added the discussion of an interesting game that simulates market behavior during a bidding process and shows how players can be trapped by their own self-interest into making decisions that end up becoming increasingly detrimental, yet being unable to stop.
In the same spirit, and fitting my arrival yesterday evening for a week in Las Vegas, I offer another related analogy:
I also see Bush as a gambler, not sitting at a table but at a slot machine. He’s willing to keep throwing more and more silver dollars (soldiers’ lives) into the machine, thinking that he might eventually win back his rent money (future legacy), even as he is slowly losing everything he owns (the last 28 percent or so who approve of him.)
But the kicker is that this gambler is so deluded (stupid), that he refuses to notice that the machine he’s playing is so broken that the reels aren’t even spinning any more!
No comments:
Post a Comment