Post
by stilltrucking » August 12th, 2006, 9:03 am
The Guardian (London) September 6, 2002
Wake-up call
If the US and Iraq do go to war, there can only be one winner, can't there? Maybe not. This summer, in a huge rehearsal of just such a conflict - and with retired Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper playing Saddam - the US lost. Julian Borger asks the former marine how he did it
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/ ... -iraq1.htm
Gladwell outlines the details of a 2002 War Game exercise that details the military tactics of two teams: red and blue. Both teams were not evenly matched, as the blue team enjoyed superior tactics and technology - not to mention the best analysts and military strategists. The red team had fewer resources, and the commander was meant to represent a rogue commander in the Middle East. USMC General Paul Van Riper, or "Rip," as he was called by many, was chosen as the commander. A military officer who had a reputation for making good decisions in stressful situations, he proved to be an exceptional commander in Vietnam and his future endeavors. So the stage was set, Rip was up against the greatest war game team in modern day history. To make a long story short, Rip defeated the Blue team in less than one day. The blue team had assumed that Rip would use the latest technology for communications such as cell phones and satellites. But this was an incorrect assumption; Rip was able to sink the majority of the Blue Team's naval forces by using old signal communications. For instance, the Blue Team did not calculate that he would use light signals to land and launch his fighter planes. The point of this example was to illustrate that high stress experiences and training allowed Rip to make snap decisions that would defeat those who lacked those experiences and training. In this case, the Blue team lacked a Commander with the aforementioned attributes. In other words, all the expertise and technical advances could not replace the keen snap judgment of Rip. In similar examples,
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-rev ... 44?ie=UTF8
