September 6, 2002
3:13 AM   Subscribe

Iraq 1, USA 0? Retired Marine Paul Van Riper claims free-play war game scripted after 16 warships refloated after his "enemy" forces sunk them in the Persian Gulf. He believes nothing was learnt from the exercise as it was twisted to give the outcome the Pentagon wanted. "A phrase I heard over and over was: 'That would never have happened,'" Van Riper recalls. "And I said: nobody would have thought that anyone would fly an airliner into the World Trade Centre... but nobody seemed interested."

The Pentagon say all scenarios must be replayed in order to examine other outcomes and the whole exercise was a valuable learning experience. Let's hope so.
posted by jontyjago (6 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason:



 
Speaking of replaying.
posted by thijsk at 3:19 AM on September 6, 2002


Adding new info on the earlier thread.
posted by sheauga at 3:24 AM on September 6, 2002


Bah! I did a search on "Riper" and nothing came up! It's my first post - be gentle with me...
posted by jontyjago at 3:28 AM on September 6, 2002


Happens to lots of us, try again sometime.
posted by sheauga at 3:32 AM on September 6, 2002


As long as this is still up, Bill Kristof's NYT editorial today is all about this. He talked to General Van Riper himself and asked a lot of the questions MeFites from the last thread probably wanted to.
posted by gsteff at 7:23 AM on September 6, 2002


Ooh-rah! I'm a former Marine and Gulf War Vet (during the early days of which, Saddam could have succeeded with just the tactics Van Riper suggests), and I think the current administration is not only stupid but criminal. Ah, but the ambiguity of Semper Fi -- I'm still fond of the Corps and think our Country is still a City on a Hill. As such, I love it whenever Marine Corps Generals lay it on the table: Van Riper may not be Smedley Butler or David Shoup, but we could sure as h**l use more men like him.
posted by minnesotaj at 7:59 AM on September 6, 2002


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