Word: pyrrhic
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...British colonization was a Pyrrhic success. To a great extent, British policy failed in Ireland and continues to fail in Northern Ireland. To be specific, it is the English who have failed. As a nation, they have never understood "those impossible people," the Irish, nor truly cared to, and the Irish dislike of the English is legendary. At every turn of English policy towards Ireland--with Essex, with Cromwell, with the 'black and tans' (infamous British in the war of independence)--there is ceaseless bloodshed, rebellion and repression...
...battered and bruised ruggers never had a chance against the Eagles, still fresh after a romp over the Jumbos. The victory over B.U. was a Pyrrhic affair, for the Crimson lost the services of Mickey Doyle (sprained ankle) and Sal D'agostino (bogus ejection by referee), and the remainder looked to be in less than perfect condition...
...only in order to fail. Evoking Jed's self-confessed insubstantiality by equipping him with poetic phrases and intellectual rationalizations in place of emotions, Warren purposely forfeits the possibility of making his protagonist a fully rounded, artistically engaging human being. Jed is a small triumph of characterization, but a pyrrhic one nonetheless...
Every time he battered his luckless foes into the ground, they gained strength from the pounding and returned to fight, stronger and more confident than ever. Pretty soon the general's string of Pyrrhic victories began to turn into a string of Pyrrhic defeats...
...legislating admissions quotas for medical schools would be a pyrrhic victory at best. There would be reverse discrimination and deans would fight hard to retain their right to determine who is qualified for the profession. It is in the admissions office that Ebert's talk of academic freedom is made flesh. The uproar over a provision in the new bill requiring medical schools to reserve places in their third year class for students who have completed two years in a foreign school and passed part one of the national board exam, is no freak accident...