3 options one has in a quagmire

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

1. you can get out.

2. you can "tread water" and try to keep your head above the muck.

3. you can sink and die.

if you get out, you'll have muck on you and be embarassed that you got into it in the first place.
but, you will be out of it.

if you try to keep your head above the muck, it will sap your strength and eventually you will have to consider option 1 or 3.

or, you can sink and die.

bush has chosen option 2 in iraq, he will eventually have to consider 1 or 3.

[gratuitous]

1. That about covers it . . .

When you've made a mistake, you can either rectify it or keep making it. Bush has chosen (or rather decided - he's the decider, after all) that our entire country must keep making this mistake. There's no amelioration, no rectification. Just keep making the same mistake. You wouldn't want Bush to lose face now, would you? Sure, it sucks if you're one of thousands dead or one of the millions affected by someone else's death in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I'll bet you never for a second thought about how terrible Dubya would feel if he had to admit making a mistake, did you?

Why, people might make fun of him for being a callous idiot!

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

3. you mean this face

[gratuitous]

5. If we could lose that face

I wouldn't have to lose my cookies.

[BurtWorm]

2. Well said.

You found the counterframe to "cut and run": Sink and Die.

[dipsydoodle]

4. The usual line is -

when you're up to your arse in alligators it's hard to remember that your original objective was to drain the swamp. :)