
Pentagon war game includes scenario for military response to domestic rebellion - carterklein13
https://theintercept.com/2020/06/05/pentagon-war-game-gen-z/
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ethbro
Pentagon has plan for X, for values of X that are possible, is literally the
job.

Do we want a military with extremely powerful weapons executing a carefully
considered and studied plan, or just winging it?

And truth be told, joint / cooperative exercises are often more about C2
experience and relationship building and less about the actual objective.
"Aliens attack" would be almost as effective at the primary goals. So why not
have some fun with it?

The Intercept does veer into click-bait occasionally.

~~~
happytoexplain
The fact that they are doing their job is not interesting or relevant. What's
interesting and important is the specific scenario they are forced to
consider, and what it says about the state of the country.

~~~
craftinator
The reasons behind this type of planning are interesting, but I wouldn't read
_too_ much into them. I've sat in on this type of wargaming before, and
generally the workflow is as follows:

Military think-tank identifies a situation for which where there is no modern
war plan, a situation which could possibly happen if global circumstances
change.

Think-tank writes up a detailed notional scenario describing the world in
which that situation could occur and hands it off to military leaders.

Military leaders present it as a war game to their staff, assign different
units to different sides.

Military staff proceeds to generate plans to win their side of the 'war',
possibly executing maneuvers in mock battles or training events, and write up
lessons learned and battle tactics and strategies.

These write ups are compiled into "war plans" and codified.

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craftinator
To clarify, these are done _constantly_. A large portion of the training
events that the average military service member does are in support of these
wargames. They are extremely effective in keeping up mission readiness at all
levels; commanders get practice solving difficult military problems in
peacetime, battalions get practice coordinating deployments and operations,
and individual units and personnel get practice using tactics and equipment.
The only real downside is that they are vastly expensive.

~~~
RhysU
They are less expensive than losing the occasional war.

~~~
craftinator
True! But when was last time the US was forced into a war? I believe that was
World War 2. Ever since then we have been voluntarily policing the world, and
losing many of those "wars".

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non-entity
> In early 2025, a cadre of these disaffected Zoomers launch a protest
> movement. Beginning in “parks, rallies, protests, and coffee shops” — first
> in Seattle; then New York City; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Las Vegas;
> and Austin — a group known as Zbellion begins a “global cyber campaign to
> expose injustice and corruption and to support causes it deem[s]
> beneficial.”

These are the bad guys???

On another note, their profile of zoomers is pretty interesting. Perhaps it
might just be the spots I hang out on the internet, but most of us do seem to
radicalize easier, or at least fall further to whatever respective side of the
economic spectrum.

~~~
commandlinefan
> campaign to expose injustice and corruption ... These are the bad guys???

Propaganda 101: Call yourself the warmest, fuzziest name you can think of,
something nobody could ever possibly disagree with.

~~~
happytoexplain
Actions can be just or unjust regardless of how shrewdly they are portrayed.
Logically then, you think the parent post's opinion is biased by propaganda?

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throwaway0a5e
They pay people to come up with scenarios. They range from mundane to far out
there. If they didn't make up stuff like this they wouldn't be doing their
jobs properly. I'm sure the NCOs had a blast making the PowerPoint for this
one.

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badloginagain
What strikes me about their scenario is how it assumes there is a core group
making malware to rob the corporations.

While that would make an interesting episode of CSI: Who Cares, it doesn't
square with the flash rebellions we've seen since the Arab Spring.

The nature of rebellions in our time are sudden, decentralized, massive
protest movements with no clear leaders and no clear goals.

Much harder to counter one of these protest waves than troll the darknet for
anarcho-hipster corporate raiders.

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AnimalMuppet
The "no clear goals" part makes it really hard to satisfy the rebels to the
point that they stop the rebellion, too.

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tomato2juice
The Pentagon is expected to plan for every eventuality. If they don't, they'll
be blamed for not being prepared. The US had plans to invade British domains,
such as Canada, between the two world wars (in which they were both allies)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Red](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Red)

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euroclear
>Both the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Great Recession greatly
influenced the attitudes of this generation in the United states, and resulted
in a feeling of unsettlement and insecurity among Gen Z.

I'd be surprised if zoomers cared at all about 9/11, since they would've been
too young to remember or process it.

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ed25519FUUU
Yes but not too young to be affected by the subsequent laws and wars.

Some of these kids have only known our country in a state of endless war.

~~~
carterklein13
Yeah I have a younger sister who is Gen Z and I'd say it's more to your point.
All she knows is the rhetoric that the United States has its back against the
wall and, like a caged animal, is scared and frightened and trying to bite the
folks trying to help it.

I think the notion of American Exceptionalism died with Gen Z, in my opinion,
so much so that it can't even be taught in schools. Granted, I'm probably
speaking from a point of privilege as my family is from a very urban and
developed part of the country which is traditionally more worldly and not so
US-centric (NYC). But, I clearly remember what I was taught in middle/high
school as a younger millenial, and what my sister is being taught now is
totally different in terms of ideology.

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dekhn
Am I supposed to be shocked, surprised, or enraged by this? It seems fully
expected (and desirable) for the military to plan and practice for this.

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carterklein13
I feel like D: interested. Now that I read it, I came to realize that of
course the military is preparing for this and a zillion other scenarios as
well - I just found this one particularly interesting because I never would
have thought about something like this myself.

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orbifold
Germany now has 20 million retirees that just got a raise of 3.5%-4.5% in
their pensions . Already 1/4 of the population expects to be paid by a
dwindling and ageing workforce. Before long 1 adult will have to pay for 4
retirees (in Denmark). This isn't a problem that will lead to military
conflict necessarily, but (almost) for sure to a collapse of social safety
nets by mid century.

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mcbrit
Consider Clausewitz / On War. Planning and executing an engagement is tactics,
coordinating engagements to further the objective of the war is strategy. In
modern military thought, a domestic rebellion would be one of a series of
engagements in a war. Why was this war game executed / considered in such a
stripped down context?

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mcbrit
Clausewitz / On War: 1832. All military thought until today can not be read
without first reading Clausewitz to understand to what the author is
responding. It's like LISP, but for the military, and in an alternate reality
where if every single PFC knew LISP.

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alexandercrohde
If a majority of people are rebelling, then the pentagon's scenario should be
how to help that majority reassert control over a runaway executive branch.

No harm in having a scenario where a _minority_ of people commit a domestic
rebellion.

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deedubaya
> Execute order 66.

