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It utterly amazes me that civilians are surprised that military people around the world actually plan for the worst eventualities, even if the likelihood of occurrence is low.

You can plan when everyone is home and safe in their beds, you can't when they shit is actively hitting the fan.

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One thing that upsets a lot of my friends (with no military background) is the difference between the military and civilian uses of the word "plan". To the military, plan literally means, make a plan. To a civilian to plan implies an intent to do something. So when the media reports that the military is drawing up plans to do X, they freak out.

Why do you think the "worst eventualities" are so catastrophic, if not because of such planning?

Are you suggesting that planning for bad things causes them to happen? Don't you carry life insurance?

Thats not what abefortas is saying. Its different in the case of larger and larger build ups. Here, each side is causing

1) The possiblity of doing more damage.

2) Which leads the other side to do the same. Going back to 1.

The problem is that building up your arsenal is always better from a strict game theory sense (assuming, of course, the other side is rational).

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