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A Game of "What If?"

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A Game of What If

        
Among assorted analysts, there is a well-known procedure called CONTINGENCY PLANNING (hereafter referred to as CP). I am using it to help me write my current book,a sci-fi gem with the unoriginal title of “Surviving Armageddon.” Back to CP: I believe the Ellsberg Papers were just that kind of exercise, never intended to be made public or possibly even carried out. All in all, a smart exercise in the chaotic and unpredictable arena that is world politics, all local, of course. My use of this procedure in writing fiction is offered in the hope that the lay person seeking a quick and perhaps revealing CP session should ask a few “What If’” questions of his /her own.

In that spirit, the fictional contingency planning* below is a wild stab at a “What if?” exercise for news junkies, victims of conspiracy derangement syndrome, UFO believers or any nutcase that has an interest in Surviving Armageddon.

SO HERE WE GO: WHAT IF?

What if

DUE TO egregious blunders by US Department of Defense planners in FORCE TRANSFORMATION for the last decade AND due to excessive DEPLOYMENT OVER THE LAST FOUR YEARS, American fighting forces, especially ground forces, special ops forces, all called-up reserve and guard units and ground combat units from all branches were close to the breaking point due to civilian and military mismanagement?

What if

By creating for us a Mess in Potamia, (quagmire) Our Leaders have left us weak at home and impotent abroad with little or no political credibility?

What if Our Leaders plan to replace our now weakened and ill-equipped forces with privatized forces like BILGEWATER?

What if, after one or a series of catastrophic events in the U.S., Our Leaders declare martial law and suspend elections, or ,what if there are elections, but the new leaders’ inauguration (swearing in) has to be postponed? For Security Reasons?

What if the martial law Is enforced by aforementioned private security forces all the way down to the local level?

What if all the above happened and the U. S. Congress and National Guard and Reserve were conflicted and paralyzed, non-existent or impotent forces What if right wing militias, suddenly faced with what they have predicted, maybe hoped for, feel their moment has come?

STOP!. I don’t want to play anymore.

OK,

What if there was something that could be done now to stop the attrition of our forces and all the bad things that might follow?

What if the only way to stop the degradation of our military and the potential loss of our liberties was to impeach Cheney and Bush in that order or together? Point made. That would begin a new segment of what if, for sure.

What if all the newly minted Independents just forgot each other’s past partisan bitterness and demanded that their new, Independent Populist Voices be heard.?

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Fulbright in 1966-67; Visiting Lecturer in American Literature with Baghdad University/Texas University Exchange Program. Guest Lecturer for the American Authors Lecture Series for the United States Information Service in Iraq. Co-authored with (more...)
 
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