I’d quibble about “clearly,” even in context. Wars are just too damn random.
Nothing against cost-benefit analysis in the abstract, but, in practice, invading a country seems like one of those very complicated choices that may inherently risk some major, major unintended consequences. I’m mostly thinking negative, but I suppose this would go both ways—unexpected ultimate positive consequences might be possible as well, but still hard to calculate at all.
I’d quibble about “clearly,” even in context. Wars are just too damn random.
Nothing against cost-benefit analysis in the abstract, but, in practice, invading a country seems like one of those very complicated choices that may inherently risk some major, major unintended consequences. I’m mostly thinking negative, but I suppose this would go both ways—unexpected ultimate positive consequences might be possible as well, but still hard to calculate at all.