Guessing Game

Military officials traditionally like to keep things vague when they discuss exercises. An announcement today by U.S. Joint Forces Command -- about a mission rehearsal exercise aimed at readying a new joint task force headquarters for operations in the Horn of Africa -- is no exception.

According to the announcement, the task force members, about to move into one of the world's most volatile regions, are going to tackle issues like this:

"The problem sets may include a non-evacuation operation that may occur in a developing context like the Horn of Africa, a scenario that would require forces to retrieve U.S. and third-party nationals out of a particular situation or a humanitarian assistance disaster relief problem set such as flooding in the Horn of Africa."

Capisce?