For me, it reminds me of a venture deal I worked on. It went bad as an investment, stunningly bad. Obvious dog. But the GP who had done the deal originally was too bought in, always thought a little more capital, a little more effort could rescue some value - okay not a good return, but prevent collapse.

No, throwing good money after bad into a hopeless deal is just plain idiocy, emotional aversion to finally sucking up the pain.

Actually, oddly when I finally pulled the plug on this (or forced the pulling of the plug), the entrepreneur was forced by not having the lifeline, to get real. Sure the firm went bankrupt, but the pain allowed a realistic reboot. Of course the reboot meant massive losses, bankruptcy, layoffs, and the like, and the rebooted firm is a mere shadow of former aspirations.... but no amount of capital was going to make the original vision or even a rescue version of the original vision work, and pitching in more just dragged out the non-biting the bullet.

The US decision makers all around saying they can't withdraw, there will be chaos, etc. are quite right, except... there is going to be chaos regardless