More revelations abt atrocities in Iraq

[Utah]

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Thus, given that we were going to fight, has the war been executed well? Is the loss of 2,000 soldiers acceptable from an operational execution standpoint?



The only way to evaluate a project is to look at its justification, the outcome, and then evaluate whether the justification was met by the outcome. By any measure the outcome and the justification are poles apart.

Saying I only lost 4BB with the poor choice of reraising the rock when I held A7o is silly analysis, IMO. Even though a less skill full player may have lost 6BB because of poorer execution. If you had reasons to play A7o you need to see if the outcome met the reasons for the play (regardless of the actual loss or gain).

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Respectfully, that is completely wrong given the question I asked. I am asked all the time to lead complex fubar projects started by other people. My execution of those projects and my excellence or failure is judged completely independently of whether the project should have been started in the first place.

I did not ask whether the project was justified. Rather, in simple terms, I asked for a judgement on the project management alone.

[ACPlayer]

To me, at least, that dichotomy is irrelevant. But if you want my judgement the project has been poorly managed from the start to the finish. The only execution that was done well was the initial "fighting" in Iraq (that is the invasion of the country against a non-existent force). The political management has been inept (at best), the infrastructure management and rebuilding appears to be a bad joke, the policing of the country is non-existent, the level of manpower needed is the subject of constant bickering, the diplomatic management is also non-existent, taking advantages of opportunities to bail out hava been ignored, I could go on -- but I suspect you are not listening.

One thing that has been done well is that lots of money has been spent (another 50B was just granted).

So, bad hand selection, which, IMO has led to bad play. The two are intertwined.

If you, do actually, manage projects you know that the expectations you sell the client and the results need to match up (at least to the extent that the expectations are explainable, even if the results are not so great). You sell him a home and deliver a castle you are a hero, you sell a castle and deliver only a mansion -- well you are fired -- unless you have a dashed good reason for the difference. Politics, like complex projects, is a matter of setting and managing expectations.