A marine general led a fictional Iran against the US -- and won

[mainer]

Ouch. It seems we earlier gamed out this war... and we lost.

In 2002, the U.S. military tapped Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper to lead the opposing forces in the most expensive and expansive military exercise in history up until that point. He was put in command of an inferior Middle Eastern-inspired military force—essentially a fictional Iran—and his mission was to go against the full might of the American armed forces.

In the first two days, he sank an entire carrier battle group. In fact, he had achieved such great success so fast that it prompted the U.S. military brass to cry foul.

The exercise, called Millennium Challenge 2002, wasn’t just big. It was huge. It was designed by the Joint Forces Command over the course of two years to include 13,500 participants and numerous live and simulated training sites.

The idea, mandated by Congress, was to pit an Iran-like Middle Eastern country against the U.S. military, which would be fielding advanced technology that the United States had not planned to implement until five years later. It would begin with a forced-entry exercise that included the 82nd Airborne and the 1st Marine Division. When the Blue Forces issued a surrender ultimatum, Van Riper, commanding the Red Forces, turned them down.

https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-trending/that-time-a-marine-general-led-a-fictional-iran-against-the-us-military-and-won/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

[Midnight Writer]

1. General Riper? Really?

[flashman13]

3. You can't make this stuff up. Really!

[EdmondDantes_]

2. Hopefully the military learned from that given it was 20+ years ago

Not that Trump would care, but the military should have taken lessons. But losing a war game isn't inherently bad. It means the team running the opposition did a good job challenging the assumptions and finding weaknesses. That's what they are supposed to do.

[Deminpenn]

7. US military did not learn anything, they just adjusted the game so the US would win

The whole story is a valuable read because the US has only gotten more dependent on technology and less able to think outside the box. The US also persists in dismissing Iran's military capabilities and their ability to conduct asymetric warfare just as the Iraqis and Taliban did that drove the US out of their countries or contained in small heavily fortified areas.

[Kid Berwyn]

4. The Brass always cries, "Foul."

In the “Grand Joint Exercise Four” war games of early 1932, Admiral Frank Schofield led the attacking force. Approaching Hawaii from the north, he ordered 150 aircraft from the USS Saratoga and USS Lexington carriers to attack defending Navy and Army forces on Oahu.

Referees ruled the engagement a victory for the attacking forces. Denoted in part by sacks of flour dropped from the attacking aircraft onto ships at anchor and airfield runways on land, the Navy planes destroyed the island’s Army Air Force bases and sank all the battleships at anchor in Pearl Harbor.

Admiral Schofield’s force then escaped northward unscathed, journalists and biographers report. The admiral retired a few months afterward. Many of his colleagues considered the success of the attack a “fluke” and did not appreciate the potential of naval air power, preferring battleships on the surface, and when necessary, submarines underwater.

The concept of surprise attack by naval aviation, however, demonstrated in war games became reality in battle nine years later. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt termed December 7, 1941, “a day of infamy” — Imperial Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

[usonian]

5. What if Iran has the Q-bomb?

[James48]

6. We are just so f*cked.

We can’t stop it now- it’s spinning out of control.

[Torchlight]

8. I imagine the results may now be even worse

Given that Mr. trump is now making the calls and has no real comprehension of cause or consequence. I think as long as he sees colored markers on a map, he'll presume that means "we're winning! Scorched earth! Kill 'em all!"

trump is the opponent everyone wants to play in chess for an easy win.

[Figarosmom]

9. Trump is just showing

Everyone our vulnerabilities. Which includes bad leadership. And that is why Iran won't back down. They know trump and the alcoholic are stupid and over their heads and they can rack up a win.