[RemiVedia]

Originally posted by Patroklos
Are you kidding me, you can claim mission failure all you want, but to say this hasn't been one of the least painful conficts in the history of the mankind given scale is just ridiculous. What is the casualty rate, .20% for death, .90% for injury? If you fail to accomplish the mission then you fail to accomplish it at an acceptable price. One is a subset of the other.

[SoftrermaBioniaSat]

No, not really, though I bet anaylysis would lead to that. Though I did say "this scale" how many wars of this scale have there been pre 1900?

But I do have numbers for American conflicts. Well, what passes for numbers given the subject mater. In any case American casualty rates are accurate, I bet Hannibal of Belesarius or Darius or Wellington would have appreciated that kind of success.

If you fail to accomplish the mission then you fail to accomplish it at an acceptable price. One is a subset of the other. The military doesn't set the goal posts. If you ask for the impossible, don't be suprised if it turns out that way.

[bellson]

The basic point this guy was making is that the military should stand up and say the goal is impossible if they think it's impossible. Few did in this case. His basic point is crap.

I don't think to many thought nation building impossible at the time, just very difficult. Has anyone tried something like this on this scale before? No.

And even if they did object, well, there is this thing called the chain of command. We don't have the final say, and just because someone is asking you to do something difficult doesn't mean you can not do it. Even if they ask you to do something impossible, but legal, you still have to do it when over ruled.

AND, alot of these general officers we are talking about are not responsible for big picture stuff. "Go clear out Fulujah!" Good to go. "Go secure grid squares Fox 2 and Golf 3!" Good to go. One of the hard lessons of this war is that just because you are succeeding operationally doesn't mean you are strategically (Jutland), or policy wise. There are few operational objectives the military has failed to meet. However, that doesn't mean those were the right objectives to pursue or they are relevant to the larger puzzle of which the military only holds a few pieces.

[nilliraq]

I guess we could go back and forth on this forever, but basically I disagree with the dude

Maybe you agree?

[FBtquXT8]

Finding an algorithm that returns "1" on the input of a program that halts on no input and returns "0" on the input of a program that loops forever on no input.

[BWJfEkOB]

bigger question is "is it cheating if i program my calculator to figure out things for me faster?"

[KuRoregioNka]

Originally posted by MRT144
bigger question is "is it cheating if i program my calculator to figure out things for me faster?" No. Anything that can be done by a computer, ought to be.

[attractiveweb]

Well it depends. If I write the program myself, I've learned the methodology just as well as if I do a bunch of rote addition and multiplication.

[WournGona]

Nation building is possible though expensive and the best way to approach it is by building international consensus before ever even going in. That way when the going gets rough everyone has already made their commitment and is more likely to pony up. Of course international diplomacy and consensus building is the Bush Administration's weakest link so they are terrible at nation building.

[AlbrtJhnsqw]

And if they wrote that functionality into Mathematica themselves then I bet you wouldn't mind if they used it

[E4qC1qQ5]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Well, the multiplication and addition is one thing. I assume you've learned that well enough. Well my linear algebra teacher (wow, that was a while ago) certainly didn't the millionth time she made me essentially do Gaussian elimination by hand

[DP5Ups8o]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
And if they wrote that functionality into Mathematica themselves then I bet you wouldn't mind if they used it Depends how nitty gritty they had to get...

[Chooriwrocafn]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Well my linear algebra teacher (wow, that was a while ago) certainly didn't the millionth time she made me essentially do Gaussian elimination by hand Ha ha.

[Rufio]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


a)?

b) if you wrote the program and it's simple wrist exercise to carry out the operations yourself, then I agree with you. If you haven't actually gotten to that point, then I don't. I'm simply saying that making a blanket claim that all work should be automated is silly, especially for those who are using the work to learn. a) I meant making a model for an exponential function by plugging in 2 points on a line.

b)it really is a simple wrist exercise in this case. not all cases though.

[bahrain41]

when you do things by hand the PENCIL HURTS YOU!

[kentbrookug]

Likely not. The best and cheapest option was just not to indulge Bush with his revenge fantasies.

[Beriilosal]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Everything in Iraq was sweet until the US decided to stick around and the insurgency got going. America had just knocked over the Taliban and Saddam with no problems; they looked invincible. They could have swaggered out of Iraq knowing that they had taken care of a longtime enemy and no longer had to maintain the no-fly zones and economic sanctions. The country would have torn itself apart after they left, of course, but that's going to happen anyway, 3000+ casualties and a trillion dollars later...

about time someone said it who wasnt me!