Ghost Recon Predicted Russo-Georgian Conflict?

C.T.

With all the tensions and stress in the Caucas region, I found a little something ironic and slightly humorous. If you have ever played Tom Clancy's, Ghost Recon, then you might be slightly versed on the geography of the conflict. This is why.

The South Ossetia war, which began on August 7, bears a close resemblance to events portrayed in the 2001 Xbox and Playstation 2 game "Tom Clancy's GhostRecon," the first level of which takes place against the backdrop of a struggle between Georgian rebel forces and the legitimate Georgian government in the South Ossetian region. [1]

Talk about life imitating art, or in this case gaming. Or maybe Tom Clancy is a mad genius who is clairvoyant. This is even spookier, notice the timeline.

Ghost Recon's plot follows these skirmishes with a full-scale Russian invasion of the region, a subsequent evacuation of US forces, and ultimately the fall of the Georgian government. Ghost Recon almost got the timescale right, too: the game's imaginary events begin in April 2008, just a few months before the real war kicked off. [1]

But fear not, everyone will participate in this victory over tyranny and aggression, even a teenager with a joypad.

If Ghost Recon's uncanny trend continues, we can expect the South Ossetia conflict to culminate in a dramatic assault on Red Square and the Kremlin by NATO troops -- spearheaded by an elite US special forces team under the control of a pimply fourteen-year-old with a joy pad. [1]

Hopefully, Tom Clancy just got lucky, cause I don't even want to think about any of his other games playing out for real. Gotta love it!!

C.T.

[1]Georgia-Russia conflict predicted in 2001 video game