Everything has to considered in context. For instance, it became soon clear in the Iraq war that there were no WMD's, Saddam was captured, the people did not welcome us as liberators, and the war became a quaqmire without an end in sight. But George Bush was resolute and would not back down.
In this case, resolve alone was the wrong decision. When the situation changes, smart leaders adapt to it, even reverse a bad decision.
In other cases resolve is the right decision. In 1991 the first George Bush put together an unprecedented coalition to throw Saddam out of Kuwait. The temptation was there to march on Bagdad and overthrow Saddam. But the President stuck by his guns to not exceed the mission that was planned. I objected to this at the time, but circumstances have proved him correct. As he put it in his 1997 memoir, "A World Transformed" he said,
"Trying to eliminate Saddam ... would have incurred incalculable human and political costs... . We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq ... there was no viable 'exit strategy'. Had we gone the invasion route, The United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."
Boy did he turn out to be correct.
Context is everything. Sometimes you stick to your guns, sometimes you modify the plan . . . whatever leads to success.
