The biggest war game in US military history, staged this month at a cost of US$253 million with 13,000 troops, was rigged to ensure that the Americans beat their "Middle Eastern" adversaries, according to one of the main participants.
General Paul Van Riper, a retired marine lieutenant-general, told the Army Times that the sprawling three-week millennium challenge exercises, were "almost entirely scripted to ensure a [US] win."
He protested by quitting his role as commander of enemy forces, and warning that the Pentagon might wrongly conclude that its experimental tactics were working.
But the Pentagon has denied it rigged the exercises.
"I actually believe that it was not rigged," Marine Corps General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday.
"If some people in a particular part of the experiment felt like their life was being controlled more than they would like it to be, that wouldn't surprise me. That happens in every exercise because somebody has to be the object of the other person's experiment."
The massive, three-week Millennium Challenge 2002 exercise involving more than 13,500 US troops, has generated controversy since the retired Marine general who commanded the imaginary opposing force went public with his complaints.
Van Riper said when he agreed to command the forces of an unnamed Middle Eastern state -- which bore a strong resemblance to Iraq, but could have been Iran -- he thought he would be given a free rein to probe US weaknesses. But when the game began, he was told to deploy his forces to make life easier for US forces.
"We were directed ... to move air defenses so that the army and marine units could successfully land," he said. "We were simply directed to turn [air defense systems] off or move them ... So it was scripted to be whatever the control group wanted it to be."
The Army Times reported that, as commander of a low-tech, third-world army, Van Riper appeared to have repeatedly outwitted US forces.
"Instead of a free-play, two-sided game as the joint forces commander advertised it was going to be, it simply became a scripted exercise. They had a predetermined end, and they scripted the exercise to that end," Van Riper said.
Vice-Admiral Marty Mayer, one of the coordinators, denied claims of fixing.
"I want to disabuse anybody of any notion that somehow the books were cooked," he said.
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