Will America get pulled into another Mideast war? We hosted a ‘war game’ with former U.S. officials to find out. Meet the 'war game' players.
It’s 5 in the morning when the
phone rings at the beachfront home of Dan Shapiro, the American
ambassador to Israel. On the line is Rafi Barak, the head of Israel’s
foreign ministry, sounding tense. Israel has struck six Iranian nuclear
facilities overnight, causing extensive damage, he says. Israeli’s
foreign minister will soon be calling Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
with details.
The military complex at Parchin, Iran, in 2004. (DigitalGlobe-Institute for Science and International Security via AP)
Thirty minutes later, Shapiro and a team from the U.S. Embassy that
includes the military attaché and the CIA station chief arrive at
Israel’s Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv for a briefing.
Operation Whirlwind, they’re told, involved dozens of Israeli warplanes;
covert landings in Ethiopia, India, and Saudi Arabia; and a complicated
choreography of electronic jammings and midair refuelings. One Israeli
plane went down during the offensive, but the rest of the operation, a
huge undertaking for Israel, went off cleanly....MUCH MORE (Hint: it spins out of control pretty fast)
