Free The War Planners by Andrew Watts Page A

articles from people without them realizing it.  But that was less than half the trick.  It all has to do with cognitive science.  Our brains can only process so much information at once.  So if they get too much information all at the same time, they are forced to prioritize.  Through the power of suggestion, the pickpocket helps them to suggest what priority they process the information by directing their attention to various other things.  If he wants to take your wallet, he calls your attention to your wristwatch.  While you’re looking at your wristwatch on your left hand, he’ll talk to you, pat you on the shoulder with one hand, and take your wallet with the other.  He moves in close so there is less time to react.  Before you know it, there are just too many activities happening at once to process them all efficiently.”
    David said, “So you think China should launch a bunch of distractions?”
    Natesh said, “Again, we’re here to plan the attack.  I think that the people we have in this room can help us to identify and plan enough high-priority decoy events that the United States won’t see the eyeglasses taken off their face.”
    Brooke raised her hand and said, “Natesh, I appreciate a good story.  But having worked in signals intelligence collections, we do a pretty good job of monitoring China.  How do you propose that—”
    “I’m not saying that you don’t, Brooke.  But I think we need to come up with ideas for how to create a distraction that would effectively require the majority of the United States’ time and resources to be dedicated to it.  Better yet, let’s think of a few distractions.  Tie them together.  But don’t tie them to China.  So when the United States has its eye on its wallet and cell phone, the glasses become overlooked.”
    “And how do you do that?” asked Brooke.
    “Start a separate war.  Make the U.S. go to war with another country so they’re spread thin and absorbed in it.” said David.  “That’s what I’d do.”
    Henry said, “Okay, what country can we pick a fight with that would cause us to mobilize the most military assets?  How about Canada?  I hate those guys and their polite manners.”
    “Iran?  North Korea?  Russia?” said Brooke.  Others chimed in with their own opinions.  The group chatted about it and remained reasonable in their arguments for each nation.
    “It’s gotta be Iran.” Said Major Combs.  “If the US went to war with Russia or North Korea, we’ll be in a better location to fight back against China.  I wouldn’t want that if I was them.”
    “That’s true.  You’d want the United States to be distracted and also in a bad position to respond.” said someone from the front of the room.
    “So how do we start a war with Iran?  One that doesn’t get the U.S. pissed off at China for starting?” asked David.  
    Natesh said, “Okay.  Here’s the way we’ll do this.  You all have plastic buckets with sticky notes and markers near your desks.  If you don’t, share with the people next to you.  Write down a few ways that you think we could plausibly start an Iranian-US war.  Again, we are China for this exercise.  How can China encourage the start of a U.S.-Iranian war without implicating themselves?  Think about your own areas of expertise and use that if it applies.  Everyone write it down on your piece of paper.  Write down a few ideas if you have them.  Then bring them up to these white boards behind me and stick them there.  Brooke, would you mind helping me?  We’ll bucket these ideas into categories once they’re all up here.  Okay, you’ve all got ten minutes.”
    Soon the white boards at the front of the classroom were filled.  Brooke wrote down different categories with her dry erase marker and stuck the notes in straight columns under each one.  Natesh thought to himself how familiar this scene felt.  It was the same exercise he had done a million times for corporate