I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all.
-- Marine General James Mattis, to Iraqi leaders in every area his men served in, after sending his tanks and artillery home following the invasion of Iraq
Tit-for-tat in the iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma, specifically. It also poses the question: how good a strategy is it to combine humor with mortal threats?
-- Marine General James Mattis, to Iraqi leaders in every area his men served in, after sending his tanks and artillery home following the invasion of Iraq
Why is this a rationality quote?
My guess is that it’s intended as an example of the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Then again, nearly every morality-related situation is...
Tit-for-tat in the iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma, specifically. It also poses the question: how good a strategy is it to combine humor with mortal threats?
It looked to me like a perfect, textbook example of a Schelling-type Threat; but maybe that’s just because I’m reading The Strategy of Conflict.
Well spotted; I missed that.