Comments on: A strange game

By: Great scenes from political movies (No4) The ending of Wargames | Dr Matthew Ashton's Politics Blog

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:07:38 +0000

[...] are the Denmark Massive and the Seato Decapitation just because they sound quite cool (See here). The only thing they share in common though is the result, ultimately no one wins. During the [...]

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 10:19:30 +0000

Well, I probably should have said 'coups' instead of 'revolutions', but I stand by it. Note I was writing about the situation ca. 1983, not today. There had been a coup attempt two years earlier; a foiled coup attempt the year before; and another back in 1978. And, of course, the Spanish Civil War had taken place only a generation earlier, still within living memory. By contrast, the English Civil War was more than three centuries earlier. That notwithstanding, I do like your additions too; especially ASSANGE ASSAULT.

By: kikokun

kikokun — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 07:12:46 +0000

"SPAIN COUNTER
Spain had just joined NATO, but was a bit iffy on the matter, and furthermore prone to revolutions and civil wars ..."

uh... that's a bit like saying that England is prone to revolutions and civil wars because of Cromwell...

I like JJBs additions, here's another update:

LIBIAN SECESSION
GOLDMAN & SACHS BANK RUN
BLANKFLEIN DECAPITATION
SARKOZY'S GAMBIT
SPANISH UNEMPLOYMENT [HEAVY]
JAPAN TSUNAMI CLASSIC II
BERLUSCONI'S MINORS
H1N1 SECONDS
MOSQUE ERECTION

and last but not least...

ASSANGE ASSAULT

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:16:14 +0000

Except for the fact that they are all spelled correctly, I like it.

By: JJB

JJB — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 00:43:31 +0000

We need an updated list:

EGYPTIAN REVOLT
PERSIAN APOCALYPSE
KOREAN UNILATERAL
GREEK ANARCHY
ARABIAN UPHEAVAL
YEMEN TERROR
BAHRAIN MASSIVE (kinda like JUMBO SHRIMP)
ANTARCTIC RIOTS (it's a long shot, but WTH)
SOMALIA PIRACY
EURO COLLAPSE
US HYPERINFLATION
BERNANKE MANEUVER
and my personal favorite...

AFGHAN PUMMELLING

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Sat, 30 May 2009 06:29:19 +0000

I never said they were perceived to be threats in and of themselves; that's a reading backwards from today's situation. Iran was a potential flashpoint because of its location (on top of or near oil, adjacent to both USSR and Afghanistan), intense anti-Americanism, and ongoing war with Iraq, then supported by the US. North Korea was and is technically still at war with the US and South Korea, led by an erratic dictator, dirt poor, with a big army which had been in a shooting war with US forces a generation earlier, adjacent to rising powers Japan and China. It wouldn't have taken much imagination to see these as potential triggers for a third world war -- more likely than Gabon, say, or Chad. They wouldn't have to have been proxies either; any rash adventurism by Iran or North Korea could have had knock-on effects throughout their respective regions, which the USSR could have used as cover for some other action (like invading Hungary while the rest of the world was preoccupied with the Suez crisis).

The real point is that not a whole lot of thought went into these scenarios. Some -- not much.

By: name

name — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:42:47 +0000

If you hadn't run across it, a game was produced that pleasantly recreates the WARGAMES experience, called DEFCON. Free demo out there somewhere.

You noted that Iran and DPRK were underrepresented. Anyone in those days suggesting Iran or DPRK could be a threat on their own would have been laughed at (and often times are still laughed at depending on the political venue). Mostly the concern was war between NATO and WARSAW PACT via proxy (Afganistan and Vietnam being classic examples) running out of control to the point where nuclear exchanges began. Indeed, LBJ exploited fear of exactly that in his attack ads on Barry Goldwater.

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:47:11 +0000

That's hilarious, Ian! They really were the good old days.

Then again, how many oil rigs did we lose to subversives smuggling plastic explosive under their fingernails? None! Obviously the paranoia was justified, because the increased vigilance stopped the attacks taking place ...

By: Ian Evans

Ian Evans — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:13:39 +0000

Ah, the Good Old Days! "The problem with Europe is that the towns are only 20 kilotons apart" Then there was the drilling rig security "expert" who assured us he'd seen the Top Secret CIA list of likely dates for Commie Atrocities, and if we had seen it, we too would be terrified. From the carefully tailored bits he let slip, it seemed to consist of; Karl Marx's birthday; Karl Marx's mum's birthday; Karl Marx's dad's birthday, Karl Marx's second-cousin-twice-removed's birthday.... and so on through every well known left wing figure you can think of. I lost brownie points, an absolute pleasure, by asking if the English football fixtures were included. (It's terrorism Jim, but not as we know it). Another expert advised us to take precautions against subversives smuggling plastic explosive on the rigs, cunningly concealed beneath their fingernails. Working patterns then were 2 weeks on; two off - there would have been many more timeous ways to damage a rig.

By: Jakob

Jakob — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:15:22 +0000

DENMARK MASSIVE is obviously referring to a turn-away from European social democracy to a rampaging horde demanding Danegeld...