The trouble is that American military aid helps dictators consolidate their power, leaving entrenched authoritarian regimes running shoddy states, rather than countries resilient enough to face threats from Afghanistan or to allow legitimate opposition from within.
And the loss of plant and animal biodiversity generally makes humanity ever-more dependent on a handful of key crop species and chemical inputs that make food production less, rather than more, resilient.
At times in the second half his team more closely resembled the side that went missing in Columbus last Sunday, rather than the resilient group of players that managed the game against New England in midweek.
That's typical of negative coping, which can fuel depression and diminished self-worth, rather than healthy, resilient action.
If the hoof smells bad and the frog is squishy (rather than firmly resilient), the horse may have thrush (certain products can be purchased to cure this, such as a bleach/water solution).
In other words, expect a rainy California rather than the ridiculously resilient ridge.
The only problem was that, mainly through excellent goalkeeping, and partly through ill luck and poor finishing, Barça were not ahead after 20 minutes, and Arsenal, this season, as their catalogue of decisive late goals suggests, are rather more resilient than they used to be.
Throttling merely slows things down, making a system resilient rather than completely resistant.
A report from Moody's, a rating agency, this week described the American and British public finances as "resilient", rather than the more solid "resistant" categorisation afforded to Canada and Germany.
