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No one in their right mind can compare war
to a board game; the very idea that a conflict which involves
the killing of innocent people on both sides of the divide
is something that cannot be considered as anything other
than crazy. Yet, in the very fabric of war the strategy
that is used to defeat one’s enemy could well have
come from a board game.
Chess uses the technique of moving piece by
piece to a better position before it eventually takes out
the other side, backgammon uses
much of the same cerebral thought process, but backgammon
has more of the fatalistic aspect of war associated with
it, the element of chance, the possibility of a bad roll,
could be deemed to be the equivalent of a mistake on the
battlefield, which when played out on the larger battlefield
map illustrates the fragility of such a plan.The Generals
move their pieces or soldiers as giant checkers on a battlefield
of possibility and opportunity.
It is the same with backgammon as piece by
piece is moved or counter-attacked or a blockade is put
up to defend a somewhat precarious position. So the basic
foundations of the conflict begin to take shape. Now you
can begin to see the similarities. Movement attack, and
retreat to safer ground, move again, attack, place a checker
in a better position ready for another charge or a strategic
higher ground move, before attacking and bearing off. Is
it not the same with war, only with different ordinance?
Of course the differentiator in all of this
are the dice, unable to tell you precisely what is going
to happen next until the action occurs, this in many ways
is another element of war that is usually at the forefront
of any conflict; but, eventually gives way to the action,
this is called diplomacy; the dice setting the tone for
the battle, in much the same way that the politicians and
diplomats do.
Their objective being to get you into the
best bargaining position that affords either a winner or
a loser, there is no draw here, no stalemate in this game.
This is a fight to the finish. Just like backgammon.
What a pity we can’t settle our wars
on a board rather than a battlefield.
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