As you can see from Mr. Nichol's slides and from reading others works on this subject, we as a nation are not too far away from a technology and tactical perspective. We have the lessons learned, and the tech is not too far off. We simply are not good at the political side of this -

1. The knowledge and the data - We have smart people working around the country on this topic and we have the data from the current operations which could be used to create a real time left seat right seat (Pull all of the combat events for the game AO up to 24 hours ago and use them in the sim)

2. We have the models - There are smart folks around the country who have already modeled these pieces. They were built for similar programs and need to be extended.

3. Systems facilitated engagements to minimize player count - With time compression, white teams who play multiple roles and system applied parameters against their character performance, we could achieve effectiveness without an army of white team players. e.g this one OC runs 10 insurgent cells, but the system applies factors for leadership, tactics, etc.

4. Language-based issues - There are translation systems today which need extension to make this succeed, but this is critical. While conducting field interrogation in Bosnia, my translator failed to convey my tone, which results in no intel. Big impact on the outcome. But we are not that far away from making this part of the sim, but it must include understanding of the tonality of the speaker as well as the language itself.

5. Mixture of math and chaos - 2nd Life brings some value in this way as I believe it applies a little of the math and a little of the interpersonal dynamic to the equation. Unlike Marriage, when you respond off the cuff, the sim marriage allows you to put on your best or worst face. We need to eliminate playing the sim how we think it should be played and play it first how we would really play it in real life. Then, learn from where we made mistakes. This is not about getting virtual tail in a virtual bar.

6. Another author mentioned targeting the CPT and above. However, most of COIN is at CPT and below in the near term, and that is a key area to address in these sims. The Marine Corps really gets the fact that their Squad Leader is a key player in COIN and is clearly investing in it.

HOWEVER, politics is killing us. As a systems developer, I have seen no less than four Requests for Proposal for similar games and simulations, all by different agencies (and I haven't even looked at Dept. of State or USAID.) In turn we are spending a ton of money, which this auspicious group could in fact develop the requirements for over a few beers, and some war stories.

Because we cannot seem to cross lines, we are missing a crucial aspect which hasn't been discussed here at all - the impact of the global community on COIN, and how we "game" this into the Sim. What impact does the Asian World Bank play? Department of State? If you are the military sim developer, you might forget to include these in the day-to-day operation of the Squad Leader, until they build a factory where you wanted to build a soccer field. Or until the DoS rep mis-speaks and tells the tribal leader that the guys daughter looks like a hairless goat.

I submit at the end of the day, the factors you all have pointed out should be consumed into a white paper and submitted into the hands of the nearest congressperson, for endorsement and funding, under the Executive branch directly, so as to remove the interagency domain protection shenanagans.