Ever wondered why USA could never pull out of Vietnam War even years after it realized it was a lost cause.
Why India is unable to make the LoC as the official Border even though both sides know they won’t be able to achieve anything more than that.
Its called the power of commitment. Most people hate to see their efforts, time and resources go waste and desperately want to bring a logical conclusion to their pursuits. Many novice traders are known to throw good money after bad by continuing to hold/increase positions rather than cut losses. Infact the common observation is that the more the person has committed/wasted for a cause, the more desperate he/she becomes to win.
If you are a smart person, then you can
1. Prolong the crisis/issue resolution and make the person desperate
2. Then when you realize that the person is all desperate show them a small window of opportunity where they could salvage their pride and get on with their lives.
12 replies on “Power of Commitment”
LOC was a big mistake – that could have been avoided had Nehru listend to Patel and the generals. The Pakistani army would have been kicked out in 2 weeks but Nehru ran to the UN -without relaising that you must always negotiate from a position of strength like the Chinese did in 1962. The mess was compunded in 1971 when we had 93,000 Pakistanis POWs and still could not get tem out. A military voctory was converted in to a political failure.
The mess with the Chinese could have also been avoided. Nehru did not even know that they were constructing a road in our territory for 2 years!!!! We could have easily given them parts of Ladakh and NEFA in exchange for Manasarovar and Mount Kailas.
On humorous note, US did not pull out of Vietnam because, it’s not manly!
@karthi….
thats exactly the point… and similar strategy can often be used for business gains
Why India is unable to make the LoC as the official Border even though both sides know they won’t be able to achieve anything more than that.
This is incorrect. India was always ready to compromise on making LoC the border. it is the pakistanis who insist that there cannot be a deal without atleast a huge chunk of kashmir valley along with srinagar going to pakistan.infact this has been offered to pakistan on atleast two occasions and both times the pakis turned it down. once zulfikar bhutto famously pointed to two villages near the himachal border and said that the Indians can keep those two and give the rest of the state to him. another similar offer was reportedly made sometime in 2003-05 with american blessings. but again the pakis did not want it.
here is the link.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/36435.cms
“In a shift from its earlier position, the Vajpayee government is not against discussing the proposal, once talks with Pakistan begin. ”
your article itself proves that the talks have just started.. and India is ready to consider it… that is far away from saying India wants to push for this solution.
neways Madhu the point of the article is not LoC, but implications of such standoff
lots of management talk
rather interesting stuff ankur
keep them coming …
i agree on parts with madhu – nehru made a mess out of Kashmir his family including extended family are continuing his legacy (im also referring to mms s recent blunder)
True!!!
your article itself proves that the talks have just started.. and India is ready to consider it… that is far away from saying India wants to push for this solution.
yes, that is how negotiations begin. nobody is going to say that one is completely ready to give away “X” beforehand. that will only encourage the other party to demand X+Y.
neways Madhu the point of the article is not LoC, but implications of such standoff
i agree. i was only trying to clear a misconception.
That’s a cunning answer to a challenging question
@ankur: as far as i remember, there are 10 more “powers” yet to fall in our purview apart from commitment and ethics…starting tuesday
care putting them in a separate heading? would be an interesting collection
@skabeesh…
sure man 🙂 why don’t u lend me a hand in writing the remaining 9 articles