As an Economics major, I've been consistently amused by the displeasure of my student peers when faced with the prospect of taking a class in the subject. So to the reader, if you count yourself among that group and care to minimize your exposure to the dismal science, you've been warned.
Anyway, Oliver Goodenough (isn't that a fun name?), a professor of law at Vermont Law School, has an interesting [economic] perspective on the Iraq war as something that students of the discipline would label an irrational escalation of commitment. An excerpt from the article:
Anyway, Oliver Goodenough (isn't that a fun name?), a professor of law at Vermont Law School, has an interesting [economic] perspective on the Iraq war as something that students of the discipline would label an irrational escalation of commitment. An excerpt from the article:
America is long past the possibility of some kind of profitable outcome in Iraq. Neo-con dreams of a quick, cheap victory, delivering democracy and peace and self-financed from Iraq's own oil revenue, got us started on this misadventure. Like the students, the early bidding seemed like a fun adventure to the boys in the Bush administration. "Bring 'em on," the chief boy said about the other bidders. And like the economics class, suddenly we were in the thing up to our necks, with only bad choices available at an ever-escalating cost.The entire piece is a good read for its perspective of the sunk costs at play in Iraq policy these days. As you read the first few paragraphs, think of them as an allegory to the desperate actions this administration has undertaken since the first days of war. And at some point, policy makers must be willing to find a way out of this irrational escalation:
Senator Barack Obama yesterday presented his most extensive plan yet for winding down the war in Iraq, proposing to withdraw all combat brigades by the end of next year while leaving behind an unspecified smaller force to strike at terrorists, train Iraqi soldiers and protect American interests.[For more on sunk costs and the Iraq War, see Steven Dubner of Freakonomics fame.]
1 Comments:
Good post. I feel so much more informed after reading your posts.
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