Turning degrees of failure into degrees of success...

[rpannier]

-To listen to the administration and it's apologists over the past 4 years, we are to believe that progress is being made in Iraq.

-The question that seems to be avoided in this discussion, the queries of the Administration, etc is "What is the basic stage (the starting point) that we are using to measure this success?"

1)For example, If my two-story house gets hits by a hurricane and it is demolished, everything is gone, and a week later I have put in a new first floor, then that is a success. I started with nothing and I have something. That's progress.

2)Now if I lose the second floor and not the first and a week later there is still only a first floor then there's been no progress. It's irrelevant if I bought a new chair and couch for my house. The second story and the roof are still missing. Ergo no progress has been accomplished on the house.

3)Now, using the previous scenario, I have one floor and start to work on the second floor. I proudly proclaim that "In 6-months, this house will be rebuilt better than ever!" A week later the first floor is gone as is the house's foundation. Through the work I have done, I made the house worse than if I had just bought the couch and threw a tarp over the ceiling to keep the rain out.

3a)Sticking with scenario 3. A week later you walk by my house and a foundation has been relaid (after I destroyed it) and I tell you, "I'm making progress."
Technically, I have made progress, if you ignore the fact that the house had a full story on it two-weeks ago.

3b)You come back a week later and half the first floor is completed -- Again, I announce that I am making progress.
I start to work on the other half of the first floor and as I finish it, the first half of the floor collapses and the second half follows suit.

3c)So, I start over. You walk by my house and I've gotten the first half of the first floor built and I proclaim progress is being made.
What's the benchmark? The foundation is now the benchmark. It has ceased to be the first floor that was left after the hurricane.
When you point out to me, "You know. For the money you've spent on 'fixing' your house, you could have hired a professional, an
expert, to come over and build it instead."
I blow you off.

3d) During my 'building' of the house, I do something incredibly stupid and not only do I destroy the half of the first floor I built, but I destroy the foundation (Again). So, I start over.
You walk by, notice the disaster, and again point out that I'm not making any progress. I get angry, call you a false friend and blow you off again.

3e) A month later the foundation is finished and I claim success. I have laid the foundation. The benchmark has again changed. It's now...I started with nothing and I have a foundation.
You walk by, I brag about my success and you say, "But, before you started 'fixing' the house, there was a foundation and a whole first floor."
I 'remind' you that there was 'NO foundation' a month ago and now there is.

Nowhere in the 'proof of progress' that I'm making is there any mention of where I originally started. I just changed my degree of failure into success, by changing the starting point.

After a few years have gone by, I've got that first floor almost finished -- Again.
By now, many have forgotten that first floor ever existed. In fact, there's even debate among the neighbors as if that first floor ever existed to begin with. Some wonder if there ever was a house there to begin with.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. "Mak'in Good Progess" "Let Freedom Reign!" "Finish The Job"

It's a job alright.