U.S War Games

[Zorin Industries]

I read this in the Guardian yesterday, I couldn't find a link on the internet so i'll try to explain it the best I can.

 

Apparantly a U.S General, Van Riper, I think his name was resigned his post in protest at the U.S war games that took place recently. He said he was resigning because the games were fixed so that the American side would win, even though his forces, which were supposed to represent a middle eastern nation beat the American side in 2 of the games.

 

Apparantly U.S forces were allowed to resart after they were destroyed, and he was told to deploy his troops in such a way as to weaken his side. These games were supposed to test new military tactics for the army.

 

If this is true isn't it a really bad idea to collect faulty information by rigging the games.

 

I would like to hear what people have to say on this, especially Marney since you say you train Military Officers (at least I think that is what you said.

 

I will try and find the article I was reading in case I have made any mistakes, but I think it is accurate.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

Here's a link to an article in the Washington Post.

 

It's certainly possible that this happened exactly the way the general claims, and if so, of course it was a bad idea. But it's also possible he drew the wrong conclusions. Yes, war games are meant (among other things) to gather data and to test overall tactical preparedness. But they can also be meant to test specific tactics, specific pieces of equipment, and specific response scenarios. In such a case the general would have been obliged to conduct certain aspects of his attack according to his instructions. That's perfectly normal.

 

I've never heard of war games being used for morale-building purposes, and it's not like the results are widely disseminated, so I'm still at a loss to understand exactly what would have been accomplished by the alleged "fake" win. But I wasn't at the exercise, I didn't set it up, and I don't have any special knowledge about it, so all of this is nothing more than generalised commentary; I'm not criticising anyone involved.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

But it wasn't actually troops from the middleast beating the U.S. in the wargames. It was other U.S. troops. portraying another nations troops.

[Zorin Industries]

Yes, I know that, I just thougt that it was a bit strange, especialy when this is to test new tactics.

[Guest TJH]

Just like the movie Heartbreak Ridge......