Ian Bogost - Water Cooler Games - Simulation says Iraq Invasion Doomed

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Water Cooler Games served as the web's primary forum for "videogames with an agenda" — coverage of the uses of video games in advertising, politics, education, and other everyday activities, outside the sphere of entertainment.

The site was maintained at watercoolergames.org from 2003-2009, where it was edited by myself and Gonzalo Frasca. It is now archived here in full.

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Simulation says Iraq Invasion Doomed

by Ian Bogost November 6, 2006

categories: Political Games

According to Desert Crossing, a secret military simulation built during the Clinton administration in 1999, an invasion and occupation would require around triple the resources the U.S. has invested.

"The conventional wisdom is the U.S. mistake in Iraq was not enough troops," said Thomas Blanton, the archive's director. "But the Desert Crossing war game in 1999 suggests we would have ended up with a failed state even with 400,000 troops on the ground." There are about 144,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, down from a peak in January of about 160,000.

Here's the story, and here's the newly released documentation from planning to after action reporting, ending 1999.

(thanks to Jane)