Letters to the Editor
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Rigged war games
I seem to remember ("Miracle at Midway"?)The Japanese Navy played a wargame prior to the attack on Midway Island. The American player anticipated reality by surprising the Japanese carriers and sank a few of them. The referee then simply replaced the "sunken" ships on the table and the game continued to a major Japanese victory. If only.
That sort of thing is all-too-human but all-too-dangerous, and wars are lost that way. (A realistic German wargame on the invasion of Russia in 1941 would have probably shown the same result as the reality did..at least every computer simulation I've seen or played comes out that way, no matter what the German player does.) It is understandable, but it is not forgiveable.
How do these people sleep at night or face themselves in a mirror?