Iraq vs NY Knicks
Stange little bit of similarity here.
Based on what we can see happening with U.S. Policy in armed conflicts in the last 15 or so years we can see a nice trend that makes Iraq and the Knicks very similar. It has been the U.S. position that our overwhelming man power and huge budget towards conflicts will result in a victory. This is a policy that comes at substantial expense to the tax payer and the American Soldier. We have millions of dollars worth of armor, infantry, weapons and technology but all of that can be defeated by an IED that probably cost less than 100.00 to build and deploy. Power and money are not everything.
You are probably asking how this relates to the NY Knicks and I will tell you. It would appear Isaiah Thomas who used to be a beloved Piston to me but now is simply a ruiner of franchises(i.e. the CBA, Toronto Raptors and now Knicks) seems to believe that money and the powe rof big names will bring about a winning record. As can plainly be seen in the NBA standings this belief has not come to pass as the Knicks rank first in pay roll (125 million) and last in wins. Big names and big contracts have thrown this team and franchise into a hole it may never recover from as long as Thomas is in charge.
In much the same way the situation in Iraq was carried out with the belief that massive fire power and monetary backing would overcome the situation. But as it stands now we essentially rank last in wins and first in payroll. The fullscale take over may have worked well at the beginning however, after that there needed to be smaller scale realtion building operations and more sophisticated strikes that eliminated targets with little collateral damage. Smaller scale, more sophisticated and better informed options could have been employed. We went into the country with little understanding of the problems we would face after toppling the government.
The war can still be won, just as the Knicks can still be saved. Will it be a quick fix? No. Will it be easy? No. But the fact remains that there are parts being used by the Knicks and the U.S. that once they decide what is important and what will work have the makings of a winning combination. In the words of the late great Henry Ford "We learn more from our failures than our successes." While basketball is just a game, war is not and while the athletes ont he court are rewarded handsomley for their "efforts" our soldiers are hardly rewarded at all. Heres hoping that both theses organizations realize their mistakes and learn from them to salvage a victory.
Based on what we can see happening with U.S. Policy in armed conflicts in the last 15 or so years we can see a nice trend that makes Iraq and the Knicks very similar. It has been the U.S. position that our overwhelming man power and huge budget towards conflicts will result in a victory. This is a policy that comes at substantial expense to the tax payer and the American Soldier. We have millions of dollars worth of armor, infantry, weapons and technology but all of that can be defeated by an IED that probably cost less than 100.00 to build and deploy. Power and money are not everything.
You are probably asking how this relates to the NY Knicks and I will tell you. It would appear Isaiah Thomas who used to be a beloved Piston to me but now is simply a ruiner of franchises(i.e. the CBA, Toronto Raptors and now Knicks) seems to believe that money and the powe rof big names will bring about a winning record. As can plainly be seen in the NBA standings this belief has not come to pass as the Knicks rank first in pay roll (125 million) and last in wins. Big names and big contracts have thrown this team and franchise into a hole it may never recover from as long as Thomas is in charge.
In much the same way the situation in Iraq was carried out with the belief that massive fire power and monetary backing would overcome the situation. But as it stands now we essentially rank last in wins and first in payroll. The fullscale take over may have worked well at the beginning however, after that there needed to be smaller scale realtion building operations and more sophisticated strikes that eliminated targets with little collateral damage. Smaller scale, more sophisticated and better informed options could have been employed. We went into the country with little understanding of the problems we would face after toppling the government.
The war can still be won, just as the Knicks can still be saved. Will it be a quick fix? No. Will it be easy? No. But the fact remains that there are parts being used by the Knicks and the U.S. that once they decide what is important and what will work have the makings of a winning combination. In the words of the late great Henry Ford "We learn more from our failures than our successes." While basketball is just a game, war is not and while the athletes ont he court are rewarded handsomley for their "efforts" our soldiers are hardly rewarded at all. Heres hoping that both theses organizations realize their mistakes and learn from them to salvage a victory.
posted by the meathaus at 10:32 AM
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