Thursday, August 26, 2021

Making a problem worse

 (X)DE is an abbreviation for (something) dependency enhancement and describes a situation when the attack on a problem succeeds in only making it worse. Dealing with a problem in such a way as to make it worse is an old concept. It includes making antibiotics available to treat some disease, STDs for example, at a high enough price that do it yourself treatment usually doesn't completely finish it, but leaves the more resistant bacteria behind. Saw lots of this in Viet Nam. The other example is fighting a war in incremental stages, and giving the enemy time to adapt to your methods. Again, LBJ did this in Viet Nam, dragging the war out interminably. Everyone did this in Afghanistan trying to avoid being called a bully by the non-participants. The Chinese are next up. I don't think they'll make that mistake.

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