The manager dilemma

One of the fundamental problems that arises from managers decisions is this paradox:

If I say I can solve a problem only if a manager gives me $1 million (for example) to build the solution and the manager refuses then who is right?

By default the problem can't be solved without that solution. So the manager is right. By default. Without making a solution one can't dispute this outcome.

But that doesn't mean the solution won't work. The solution might be workable. It might solve a problem no one or thing else can. It might change the world. It might revolutionize society.

But without support no one will know.

If no resources are spent there is no way to prove or disprove the proposition. Not all solutions will work. But they all can't fail either. There is inherent risk in all solutions but to hide behind no action is not management. It is abrogation of responsibility to hide from being wrong.

While no one funds the effort, the manager remains right and can remain right forever. There is no way to dispute the truth yet society can't move forward if all managers get to say no.  They get to keep their jobs their benefits and avoid hard decisions and tests to their status.

There must be a way to enforce progress despite the comfort of ignorance.

Where Obama has sold out: Iraq

There are many issues that Obama has staked a position that is pro-citizen and anti-cronyism.

http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/fffd6e71-3772-416e-a397-ce503b151c12.img

Iraq and Syria is not one of them.

The reason why the West is not winning in Iraq is in part due to the fact that Obama has sold out to special interests on strategy in Iraq against ISIS. He is allowing side objectives to get in the way.

What he told the American people about the objective in defeating ISIL :

"This resolution reflects our core objective to destroy ISIL."
http://www.ibtimes.com/full-text-obama-isis-war-speech-islamic-state-terrorists-are-going-lose-president-1813394

What he is not telling the American people is that his real objective is:

This resolution reflects our core objective to destroy ISIL AND maintain favorable interests in Iraq."

That means propping up the corrupt Iraqi leaders that caused this whole mess in the first place. They turned Anbar over to ISIS by not being inclusive to Sunni Arabs. Iraq has disintegrated as a result!

Obama can win or he can maintain the cronys in Iraq that are pro-USA. He can't do both.

If winning is the ultimate objective then all secondary objectives must disappear. If the only way to do that means arming and cooperating with Iranians to crush ISIS then that should be the strategy. If that means arming the Kurds to crush ISIS then that should be the strategy. If it means US ground troops in Syria then that should be the strategy. If it means nuking Raqqa then that should be the strategy.  There is no middle ground in war. There is no appeasing side interests on the way to victory.

The American people deserve to know the truth that Obama doesn't want Iraq on his CV and he is leaving the decisions to the vested interests that caused the mess in the first place. That is making defeat more likely, not less.

If I was Obama, I would tell Abadi he's got 30 days to start showing some victory or Abadi is out of the picture and the coalition will fight over top of what's left of Baghdad.

Saudi Arabia has a real problem.

The USA army are no longer the foot soldiers for the Saudi kingdom.

That presents a serious problem:  the Saudi army is soft and untested. They aren't ready for contact. They haven't suppressed Yemen and Yemeni militias consist of squabbling groups.

ISIS is not.

The Saudi army is on the defensive.

ISIS is not.

The Saudi army has torn allegiances amongst Sunni and Shia sympathies.

ISIS is not.

If the kingdom wants to survive, it should hire American veterans of Iraq to fight ahead of their own army. The people of Saudi are sympathetic to ISIS just as they were sympathetic to al Qaeda. They already live in a dictatorship, so they are just as likely to prefer a religious one.

Any Saudi defeat would trumpet the death knell of the kingdom.  Those ISIS vipers they have lain with are ready to move into Riyadh. Saudi Arabia cannot allow any more victory to ISIS.

I am sure some noble  American veterans would like nothing more than to treat ISIS to their own harsh treatment.

Effective Proposal Writing: Now Available on iTunes

Using the techniques I talk about in this book, Effective Proposal Writing which is now available on iTunes and iBookstore, I have gone on elance and written 4 proposals and gotten one client to accept my bid.  I have one underway that might be successful as well. 

That's perhaps a 50% success rate.  On 4 attempts, and my billable rate is far higher than the average.  So what that means is I work smarter not cheaper.

I'm happy I made it to Apple iTunes through Lulu.com. It's been a while but hey I can't complain.

Knowledge is hard won

Phone a friend for recruitment and unleashing your inner psychopath: how to join ISIS.

It's a shocking strategy that ISIS is using to draw in foolish people to their midst.  This video reveals that ISIS is not at successful at the social media that we are told is working like videos. But they are more successful with personal endorsements from people trying to convince their friends.

This is a CNN video so Blogger won't let me embed it.


http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/03/23/intv-amanpour-aimen-dean-former-jihadist-mi5.cnn?iid=ob_article_footer_expansion&iref=obnetwork


http://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.2323137.1428836935!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_225/image.jpg 

Maliki wanted to be a sectarian leader, Obama wisely let him fail.

Maliki used his paranoia to widen the sectarian mistrust and fuel the ISIS invasion. He made it impossible to have an inclusive government so the outcome is predictable.

If Obama had acted then, the situation would be worse.  To help Maliki would have tarred USA with the same brush, to engender hatred against oppressors within Sunni community.

Instead, Obama wisely let him fail and the unintended consequence was the ISIS advance happened faster than expected. But ISIS would have invaded later on it was inevitable. 

By not propping Maliki up, Obama used the leverage of the situation to get a better deal from the Iraqi government. Now the Iraqi government, desperate to win, will need to accede to US demands that they would have ignored months ago.