Phrase of the Day: Mission Creep
By C. William Boyer
MISSION CREEP
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Mission creep is the expansion of a project or mission beyond its original goals, often after initial successes. Mission creep is usually considered undesirable due to the dangerous path of each success breeding more ambitious attempts, only stopping when a final, often catastrophic, failure occurs. The term was originally applied exclusively to military operations, but has recently been applied to many different fields, mainly the growth of bureaucracies.
The classic example of mission creep is the Korean War. It began as an attempt to save South Korea from invasion by the North, but after that initial success expanded to an attempt to reunite the peninsula, a goal that eventually proved unattainable. That attempt resulted in a long and costly retreat through North Korea after the intervention of the Chinese.
Hmmm. Mission Creep. Remind you of anything?
1) Invade a country because it possesses Weapons of Mass Destruction and it's Bad-Man leader is in league with terrorists.
2) Discover, or rather, have it discovered/revealed/exposed that item #1 was never true.
3) Change original mission from 'Get the Evil WMDs and Bad-Man in League with Terrorists' to the mission 'Liberate People who Deserve Liberating and who will Shower Us with Candy and Kisses'.
4) Shockingly learn that liberated people don't shower anybody with kisses but rather with bombs. And bullets. Oh, and RPGs, too.
5) Change mission from 'Liberating Candy-and-Kiss-Throwing people' to 'Instilling Democracy and Freedom in a Muslim Land so it will Spread to Other Lands like a Big Happy Freedom Plague'.
6) Shockingly discover bomb-throwers can't come up with a democratic constitution and instead are intent on blowing each other up.
8) Change mission from 'Instilling Democracy and Freedom in a Muslim Land' to 'Fighting Terror and Eliminating Global Terrorism'.
7)Realize that instead of eliminating terrorists you're making more terrorists and making them angrier than usual. And that's pretty damn angry.
8) Change mission in Iraq from 'Fighting Terrorists and Eliminating Global Terror' to 'Fixing Social Security'.
Yes! That's it! A sensible, multi-faceted policy. Every time a soldier dies, that's one less person collecting social security. And if we stay in Iraq long enough . . . voila! . . . no more Social Security problem.
Because we here at The Reasonable Rant are dedicated not just to complaining, but to problem-solving.
NEXT WEEK:
Accelerating the Reform of Social Security and Stabilization of Iraq with the Senior Citizen Army.
-Out of the Nursing Home and Onto The Battlefield:
An inside look at 78-year old Sergeant Sadie and her Easy Company.
Other stories:
-Do Our Senior-Citizen-Soldiers' Wheel-Chairs Have Enough Armor?
-Motor-Homes instead of Tanks: Will it Work?
MISSION CREEP
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Mission creep is the expansion of a project or mission beyond its original goals, often after initial successes. Mission creep is usually considered undesirable due to the dangerous path of each success breeding more ambitious attempts, only stopping when a final, often catastrophic, failure occurs. The term was originally applied exclusively to military operations, but has recently been applied to many different fields, mainly the growth of bureaucracies.
The classic example of mission creep is the Korean War. It began as an attempt to save South Korea from invasion by the North, but after that initial success expanded to an attempt to reunite the peninsula, a goal that eventually proved unattainable. That attempt resulted in a long and costly retreat through North Korea after the intervention of the Chinese.
Hmmm. Mission Creep. Remind you of anything?
1) Invade a country because it possesses Weapons of Mass Destruction and it's Bad-Man leader is in league with terrorists.
2) Discover, or rather, have it discovered/revealed/exposed that item #1 was never true.
3) Change original mission from 'Get the Evil WMDs and Bad-Man in League with Terrorists' to the mission 'Liberate People who Deserve Liberating and who will Shower Us with Candy and Kisses'.
4) Shockingly learn that liberated people don't shower anybody with kisses but rather with bombs. And bullets. Oh, and RPGs, too.
5) Change mission from 'Liberating Candy-and-Kiss-Throwing people' to 'Instilling Democracy and Freedom in a Muslim Land so it will Spread to Other Lands like a Big Happy Freedom Plague'.
6) Shockingly discover bomb-throwers can't come up with a democratic constitution and instead are intent on blowing each other up.
8) Change mission from 'Instilling Democracy and Freedom in a Muslim Land' to 'Fighting Terror and Eliminating Global Terrorism'.
7)Realize that instead of eliminating terrorists you're making more terrorists and making them angrier than usual. And that's pretty damn angry.
8) Change mission in Iraq from 'Fighting Terrorists and Eliminating Global Terror' to 'Fixing Social Security'.
Yes! That's it! A sensible, multi-faceted policy. Every time a soldier dies, that's one less person collecting social security. And if we stay in Iraq long enough . . . voila! . . . no more Social Security problem.
Because we here at The Reasonable Rant are dedicated not just to complaining, but to problem-solving.
NEXT WEEK:
Accelerating the Reform of Social Security and Stabilization of Iraq with the Senior Citizen Army.
-Out of the Nursing Home and Onto The Battlefield:
An inside look at 78-year old Sergeant Sadie and her Easy Company.
Other stories:
-Do Our Senior-Citizen-Soldiers' Wheel-Chairs Have Enough Armor?
-Motor-Homes instead of Tanks: Will it Work?
posted by C. William Boyer at 8:28 AM
1 Comments:
Your thought process continues to amaze me. Coming from a retired military, republican mindset, it is refreshing to see dissention without the Michael Moore tactics.
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