http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/06/20/guam.wargames.ap/index.html

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" Three aircraft carriers filled the skies with fighters as one of the largest U.S. military exercises in decades got underway Tuesday off this island in the western Pacific."

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"Though planned months ago, they come amid heightened concern in Asia over North Korea. "

Maybe I read too much Tom Clancy, but this seems a little too perfect with North Korea being NK right now. Japan & SK were issuing their own public statements of caution, and now they're 'observing' these wargames. This sort of stroke of good luck, that they jsut happen to have this scheduled during the time of a building confrontation, is not typical of this administration.

Dont get me wrong, this is a great political cover to get some firepower in the area just so Charlie knows were not fucking around with this test missle deal. Is there any public information to find out when these kinds of things get scheduled?

6/20/2006 3:33:35 PM

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"Is there any public information to find out when these kinds of things get scheduled? "

just a guess, but i'd go with no.

6/20/2006 3:41:36 PM

I dunno. Tension related to North Korea has been a lot higher than it is right now. Iran's taking most of the heat these days. Any time you have a military exercise, one of its goals -- in addition to general preparedness -- is to send a political message. I'm not denying that. But I don't think the timing of this one is all that important.

6/20/2006 3:45:35 PM

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"with North Korea being NK right now"

what does that mean?

i saw some war games a few years ago off Topsail Beach...pretty sweet to look out from the beach and see some battleships, choppers, harriers, etc...course its always sweet to see that when you're on their side and its a simulation

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"Tension related to North Korea has been a lot higher than it is right now. Iran's taking most of the heat these days"

maybe up until a week or two ago...but now that North Korea is planning to test missiles this WEEK that can reach the United States...I'd say North Korea is right back in the picture

6/20/2006 3:45:49 PM

last i heard the vietcong were not in north korea with long range missiles, so i dont know what your concern over charlie is about

6/20/2006 3:46:34 PM

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"This sort of stroke of good luck, that they jsut happen to have this scheduled during the time of a building confrontation, is not typical of this administration."

are you serious? did North Korea just now come up on your radar?

we have been in a diplomatic standoff with n korea for quite sometime now. given the propensity of DOD to model and simulate things to the nth degree, one would think that the possibility might have come up

how do you come up with stupid threads like this???

6/20/2006 3:48:49 PM

These wargames are not a big deal compared to some of other annual wargames the United States conducts with South Korea, in particular the "Ulchi Focus Lens" Exercise. This massive, annual exercise is at a command level involving all four branches of the United States military and their S. Korean counterparts. Globalsecurity.org calls it the largest computerized military command simulation on the planet. There were also the old "Team Spirit" Exercises which involved live-fire exercises and large troop maneuvers simulating combat against the North Korean military.

True, the current wargames in the Pacific are more massive in scale, but the exercises above are specifically targetted at North Korea. Somehow, I don't think the Pacific exercises are going to rattle them anymore than what's already been done.

6/20/2006 4:07:42 PM

Who was that retired General the Army or Marines called out of retirement to play Saddam in one of their war games? It was either pre-Gulf I or pre-Gulf II, the guy basically single-handedly defeated the entire US military in their simulation by not relying on computers and other technology they expected him to use -- so the military scrapped the sim, changed the rules to prevent him from doing it, then ran the simulation again

War games are pointless I suspect... 

6/20/2006 4:15:52 PM

^^ Thats pretty cool. I dont know much about war games; good info

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"are you serious? did North Korea just now come up on your radar? given the propensity of DOD to model and simulate things to the nth degree, one would think that the possibility might have come up "

You sir, are a moron. I am curious as to the timing of the excercise, not if there is a need for it.

The purpose of the thread was to generate discussion on wargames and all of their uses, both tactical & psychological.

6/20/2006 5:27:35 PM

they seem like they would have to help tactically, as far as going through the motions...true its pretty much impossible to simulate the emotion but any practice is good

6/20/2006 5:29:26 PM

the last time License to Kim Jong Il made public announcements confirming nuke capabilities, we tested the daisy cutter bomb just to give them a heads up

6/20/2006 6:08:49 PM

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"Who was that retired General the Army or Marines called out of retirement to play Saddam in one of their war games? It was either pre-Gulf I or pre-Gulf II, the guy basically single-handedly defeated the entire US military in their simulation by not relying on computers and other technology they expected him to use -- so the military scrapped the sim, changed the rules to prevent him from doing it, then ran the simulation again"

He was called out of retirement to play Israel, and yes he kicked our ass. He did so by firing so many missiles that the US grid was overloaded and using back to basics techniques.

The US military responded by rewriting the rules and having more-scripted wargames.

6/20/2006 6:32:29 PM

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"You sir, are a moron. I am curious as to the timing of the excercise, not if there is a need for it. The purpose of the thread was to generate discussion on wargames and all of their uses, both tactical & psychological."

well we sure as fuck dont play them for fun! douchebag.

why the fuck else would we be in the pacific

fucking captain obvious over here...tom clancy got a raging fucking boner when he read your astute observations about the intentions of any excercises of this magnitude

6/20/2006 7:12:01 PM

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""Is there any public information to find out when these kinds of things get scheduled?"

You probably won't see it on the WWW, but at the same time, it's generally not a secret that someone's trying to send out the entire Pacific Fleet for a training exercise, especially when you plan it for months. Those things cost money and get a lot of attention all the way up and down the chain. Plus, exercises that large are generally put on the calendar months if not years in advance.

[Edited on June 21, 2006 at 9:35 AM. Reason : .]

6/21/2006 9:08:31 AM

^ True. We also let all the relavent nations know in advance that we're going to conduct these exercises, less they see the gathering of the entire Pacific Fleet and panic thinking that we're about to go blow something up. The above mentioned exercise had invited observers from China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Russia, and Singapore.

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"The purpose of the thread was to generate discussion on wargames and all of their uses, both tactical & psychological."

Wargames in general are a pretty broad range of exercises from deployments of entire battalions for maneuvers to mass strategic exercises at the top levels of command. Outside of the obvious practice they provide, large exercises also provides a demonstration to the rest of the world of our military prowess. As with "Valiant Shield", we're showing/reminding the major Pacific players that the United States is still the dominant force in the Pacific. A show of force.

6/21/2006 12:50:19 PM