Military Review English Edition January-February 2014 | Page 19

DO WE TRAIN TO FAIL?

experience that the casino offers them over the
real thing. Instead of enjoying the “real” Venice,
the couple decides to return to Las Vegas to the
artificial version for their next vacation. This is
an example of how simulacra trumps reality.10
The casino version of Venice is not just a weak
imitation of the real Italian city, but reflects an
abstract fusion of Western societal values such
as American entertainment concepts, buffet
meals, opulent service, and localized aspects
of “Sin City.” This creates something entirely
unlike Venice, despite superficial similarities.
According to Baudrillard, a simulation pretends
to have what one does not possess, whereas the
progression of simulacra is to create a copy with
no original; something entirely false, yet commonly misunderstood by a society or institution
as “real.”11 This is the critical aspect of simulacra;
that the society or organization accepts the false
reality without critically questioning or realizing
it. Thus, Cypher in The Matrix realizes his steak

is imaginary while others around him remain
blissfully unaware.
Sociologists Berger and Luckmann suggest
that skepticism and innovation threaten the status
quo of an institution’s taken-for-granted reality,
in that our organizations actively resist breaking
this illusion.12
I propose that our military faces two significant
hurdles with respect to our training philosophy—
we may have created an entire false training
reality that we refer to as realistic training that is
actually a simulacra, and our own well-established
institutionalisms prevent us from ever confronting
this and changing them.13
We continue the cycle by engaging with actual
rivals in conflicts where we have questionable
success, and then return to training to prepare
again for future employment. Let us explore
some accepted Army training components and
processes and determine whether they simulate,
or are simulacra with little to do with reality.

Romanian army soldiers of 1st Company, 22nd Battalion, conduct riot control operations with U.S. Army soldiers of 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry
Regiment, replicating rioters, during a Kosovo Force (KFOR) mission rehearsal exercise (MRE) at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center
in Hohenfels, Germany, 6 May 2013. (U.S. Army, SPC Bryan Rankin)
MILITARY REVIEW

January-February 2014

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