Simulating Terrorist Attacks To Let Officials Practice

from the virtual-panic dept

Various government officials are spending some time playing games to practice responding to terrorist attacks thanks to new simulation equipment that has been designed specifically for that purpose. Of course, I wonder how effective these simulations are. First of all, they're unlikely to predict exactly how a terrorist attack is likely to shape up. Second, I'd be surprised if they could accurately take into account all the factors that would occur at once, and could, in fact, suggest procedures that wouldn't make sense in the event of a real attack - with so many other things taking place as well. Suddenly, officials who have gone through this simulation may rely too much on the experience and assume they know the proper thing to do ("the simulation said so!") rather than the better response that common sense would tell them.

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