Yet another no-prize to den-mother Pat (you guys did know Pat was my mom, right?) with this entry (free reg required, blah blah blah).

NPR did a story on this a week or two ago. This particular press monkey at least got it right in that war games are not just about running the scenario, they're about testing gear. If all the ships get sunk in the first day, then why not "resurrect" them so you can test your widgets?

Carl Sagan had a lot of encounters with military people over the years, and wrote quite frequently about them. He remarked, and I believe him, that the people who scared him weren't the military folks. They tended to be a kind of cross between a sponge and a calculator. Tell them something interesting, and they would ingest it and go off somewhere to find a way around it.

What scared him were the political weenies and civilian bureaucrats in charge of the military guys who would immediately begin ad-hominem attacks just because they didn't like what the scientists said. While everyone knows the leadership of cabinet-level posts are political appointees, few really understand what this means.

Every four years, eight at most, someone who may or may not have any real understanding of the job you've been doing for thirty years gets to come along and decide who your boss is going to be. As someone who is going through this exact sort of thing at work, I can't even begin to relate how horrifying it can be at times. And none of my bosses' decisions can result in the deaths of thousands of expensively trained young people.

Vietnam happened in no small part because the military leadership of the pentagon became just as politicized as their bosses down on Pennsylvania avenue. They literally had soldiers die for dumb reasons because they were afraid of losing their jobs. It is to the credit of the current leadership of the pentagon that they have not allowed the executive branch (Clinton's or Bush's) to perpetrate another disaster on that scale. Trust me, REMF weenies have tried, in both administrations.

Stories like this make me wonder, though, whether or not the wrong people have managed to get themselves put in charge again.