Having just mentioned them WRT Ukraine, noticing that the Middle East seems to be awash in groups sponsoring wars in which people other than them will die to achieve their ends, and reflecting on the centrality of proxy wars to the Cold War it occurred to me why they often go wrong. The people you are arming and sponsoring have different goals than you do. Everyone knows that in theory, but larger or richer nations keep thinking they can choose their battles and influence their "buddies" far more than is actually the case. You can pretty much count on it. "Okay, stop now." No, we want to win this territory back. "Keep fighting." No, we've got 2/3 of what we wanted and the subgroup we hate most over there has dropped out anyway. "Invade the mountains." You first. It reminded me of something, I couldn't tell what...
The game activates at about the 2:40 mark.
It's not quite the same as hiring mercenaries, but it's the same theme.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin had that game back in the day, never did quite see the attraction, although maybe a good demonstration of chaos theory.
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