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Examples
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Powell’s Pottery Barn rule—“you break it, you own it”—is one of the iconic rhetorical flourishes of the Iraq War era, representing warnings ignored and unintended consequences unleashed.
The Pottery Barn Rule: Syria Edition Kathy Gilsinan 2015
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Secretary of State Colin Powell was quoted in "Plan of Attack," a book in which he was a key source, as cautioning President Bush before the war that he would "own" Iraq, with all its problems, after military victory. "Privately," wrote Bob Woodward, "Powell and [Richard] Armitage called this the Pottery Barn rule: You break it, you own it."
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https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/09/the-pottery-barn-rule-syria-edition/408193/
Powell’s Pottery Barn rule—“you break it, you own it”—is one of the iconic rhetorical flourishes of the Iraq War era, representing warnings ignored and unintended consequences unleashed. It turns out that the Pottery Barn rule is neither Powell’s nor Pottery Barn’s, as the following exchange with interviewer Walter Isaacson made clear.
April 5, 2017