Jackanory Tell Me A Story

Apparently it's not the done thing to 'pretend' to be at war with real countries. It's ok to actually be at war with them but not to pretend.

For every exercise some poor soul has to create a 'scenario'. Maps are hastily recreated with made up place names - it's amazing how many times I've been at war with Ruritania. The more enterprising officers create a bit of history to flesh out the scenario - usually cribbed from some GCSE history text.

I can't remember who was involved in the exercise I'm describing. I do remember that it involved a country breaking apart, three different ethnic groups, a dose of ethnic cleansing and infringements of ceasefire agreements.

Ring any bells anyone?

The following year we were to deploy to Bosnia and someone wanted to start getting us ready early.