A useful analogy for those who are thinking about quitting

I liked Michael Geer's comparison between our operations in Iraq and an actual operation:

Never did the surgeons, the circulating nurses, the anesthesiologists or specialists stop in the middle of a GD operation and walk away. Not even when a four hour schedule went horribly sideways and ended up to be eighteen hours. To walk away is so far beyond unthinkable that the mind revolts. And when patients were clearly teetering on the edge of life and death, they received so much care and effort and sweat from teams of professionals that the suite was overrunning Grand Central. We never backed off. Never. Good God, the very idea! We got even more serious. Only men who are the focus of deadly incoming fire understand that intensity when you’re out of options, out of altitude and seconds count in life and death. You…do…not…quit.

You can read the rest here.