If available resources are ignored, you will very often make a poor choice. How does it make sense to embark upon a course which is doomed from the start due to insufficient resources? (The current subject may not have been in that category - but it was close and it is a lot closer now.)
You can always change your goal,
And/or, you can always change your method of achieving that goal.
but if you are in a situation where you can't do that, you do what you can with what you have got.
Very true. However, getting to that point without sufficient resources is not what a powerful, competent and responsible world power does.
Well, I was imprecise and you caught me on it. That came from typing the whole post and losing it, then having to try to type it in half the time!
What I should have said was that one sometimes has to make choices where available resources are not the primary factor in the decision. I did not imply that anyone ever should ignore that. And I do not believe that we did here.
One often has to make a calculation of risks versus benefits in a situation, weighing available resources (among other things) against other factors such as windows of opportunity, etc.
You do not know (or may choose not to know) that a course is doomed from the start due to insufficient resources. A pilot who takes off on a risky mission near the edge of fuel availability (say in a helicopter to rescue a downed pilot or trapped soldiers) may make a calulation that they have just enough to make it there and back. Enroute, they encounter headwinds, can't find the target, get lost, etc. A perfect example is the rescue helicopter that went down in the Perfect Storm. They calculated and lost. They did not know their mission was doomed when they made that calculation. Situational elements change fluidly (again, I am not lecturing you, you would be in a better position to lecture me on this) and you find yourself behind the eight ball due to optimistic assessments (could be the case here) or other factors beyond your control.
Even powerful, competent and responsible world powers cannot see the future and set a pre-ordained path all the time.
Do you agree that the uprising of the insurgents in Iraq is not a popular uprising?