Blowback

The term Blowback or the Law of Unforseen Consequences was coined by the CIA to describe, in part, the actions the US did in perpetrating the Viet Nam disaster, something similar to the ongoing Iraq disaster that's being perpetrated by the Bush Administration. What's interesting about this word, above and beyond politics, is how well it applies to the Lorenz Butterfly Effect and how small changes in initial conditions can have a huge impact on the end result.
This is something Edward Lorenz discovered doing atmospheric studies at MIT in 1963, research that gave rise to understanding the butterfly effect and "to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that ultimately cause a tornado to appear (but not prevent a tornado from appearing). The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different."

To that end, I give you Exhibit A: The 2000 election. Any Questions?