alt Hacker Newsto be clear: your claim is that the us military is misinformed because key constituents have played too many board games?
does hearing it back like that make it seem absurd to you as well?
to be clear: your claim is that the us military is misinformed because key constituents have played too many board games?
does hearing it back like that make it seem absurd to you as well?
Well, yes (except that Civ isn't a board game). And no, it doesn't make it seem absurd to me.
My argument is that Western strategic thought (with games being a codification thereof, rather than the source of) generally considers countries as mostly atomic actors that can be defeated - the history of European warfare being filled with "gentlemanly" surrenders followed up by peace treaties, with guerrilla warfare being a very rare exception.
On the other side, the reality in the East is that a state's collapse doesn't end the conflict, but just prolongs it. The army doesn't surrender, it goes home with its weapons and reconstitutes as insurgents. I can't actually think of a single proper surrender of an Eastern country ever, except for Japan in 1945.