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[nancylebov]

Cheops' Law is "Everything takes longer and costs more".

I'm thinking that "Wars take longer and cost more" would work, but it would be nice to have a historical figure attached. I've had one suggestion for Napolean, which seems reasonable. I kind of like Jefferson Davis (president of the Confederacy), but I fear that not enough people will get it. Any other suggestions?

Comments

[louiseroho.livejournal.com]

Alexander.

[kallisti.livejournal.com]

"No Budget survives contact with reality"
- Farrell J. McGovern II

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Edward III

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Quintus Fabius Maximus, though that may also be too obscure.

-- Steve also acknowledges that Fabius didn't start that war either, which may undermine the joke.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

LBJ

or possibly, Robert MacNamara.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Wars are of necessity run by governments — in the minarchist Libertarian view that's pretty much what governments are for — so of course they take longer and cost more. Governments aren't good at anything, even the things they're best at. (If that doesn't make immediate sense, read up on the doctrine of comparative advantage, with emphasis on that word "comparative".)

Consider the mess that is military procurement. Then consider the fact that that mess exists for a very good reason, and it may well be better than any feasible alternative. (I'm open to the idea that in this case the cure has become worse than the disease, but it's not obvious to me that this is so; those who propose it may be underestimating the disease.)

Note that I am a hawk. I am decidedly not antiwar, I think that wars can be just, and in particular that the wars the USA is currently fighting are just and right. But I'm not surprised that they have been mismanaged as much as they have; instead I'm thankful that it hasn't been even worse.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

It's still too soon to use GWB?

[ndrosen.livejournal.com]

"I do not like wars. Their outcomes are never certain." Queen Elizabeth the First said that, OWTTE, IIRC.

[sylvar.livejournal.com]

Since when has obscurity not been a selling point?

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

If you use Napoleon, be sure to spell his name right.

[landley.livejournal.com]

My current email .sig is possibly one of the geekiest ever:

GPLv3 is to GPLv2 what Attack of the Clones is to The Empire Strikes Back.

Is _that_ obscure enough for you? :)

[terriwells.livejournal.com]

How about Machiavelli?

[kugelblitz.livejournal.com]

Sun Tzu? Zhukov?