Afghanistan '11

"Every crappy thing we do, makes the next one easier to do..." (The expanse). Definition of a military quagmire: when your troops in a given conflict will never know defeat, but will never know the final victory either. Afghanistan ' 11, like its parent Vietnam 65, is the perfect illustration in game modeling of this definition. The excellent Norwegian series, "Nobel", summarises all the paradoxes of today's Afghanistan: a predominantly desert and mountainous country, with only 30% drinking water, medieval infrastructures, an ancient Food and fruit economy converted into opium production (1st global supplier), vague promises of oil and gas, as many warlords as there are villages, an insurrectional climate that goes back to eternity and, finally, the Taliban, a Muslim fundamentalist sect coming or perhaps piloted from Pakistan. Forgotten the first goals of this war, namely the destruction of Al Qaeda's infrastructures, and now places political influences, gas, oil, opium, as well as the juicy traffics of humanitarian assistance. The game: "win hearts and minds", "win hearts and minds", to help the political and economic reconstruction of the region under your control. To do this, in spite of the local elections to repeat crooked and corrupt characters, hostile and most often in contact with the Taliban from Pakistan located in the East, you will have to:-establish camps to ensure your communications. -Tracing and clearing roads to make the local economy viable. -Train official Afghan military forces. -Create hospitals. -Distributing United Nations humanitarian aid. -Build drinking water reservoirs in each village. -Destroy the fields of poppies which are most often the first local economy. -Ensure civil and military security. To succeed this wonderful program, material and various strengths will be made available to you according to your results. Mood of the game: If you remove the music from the sound background of the game, you will remain the sound of wind and storms of sand or dust in perfect match with this barrel pierced Danaïdes that you try to fulfill by carrying out your various missions , thus touching the meaning of the absurd. Without grandiose decorations, without thundering music, with a cold and efficient sobriety, Afghanistan ' 11 will plunge you into the desperate and cruel reality of the new low intensity conflicts of this first quarter of the 21st century and it is a success that any lover of the history of modern wars should experiment. In the beginning of the game, the use of the tutorial is highly recommended Finally, a final reflection induced by Afghanistan ' 11, it is today of the universal missionary propagation of "democracy" as also religious ideas: so much to expect from pleasure in a woman without desire and compulsion. "Throughout the centuries, there have always been naive policies to believe that the peoples of the Earth would love each other and understand each other if they were willing to give their hand. It's a tragic illusion. " (in "conclusion", Les Croisades, Steven Runciman-medievalist historian)