Video Fact Check Results

This is South Ostromech, a de facto independent region of the mountain nation of Gorgis. I say de facto independent because, while the region has been basically autonomous since the Danovians came to their aid in the Danovia-Gorgis War of 2008, only Danovia and Nicaragua recognize their independence. The most interesting thing about this entire conflict, though, is that the US Army made it up. Yes, Gorgis and Danovia, not to mention their sub-regions like the Ostromechs and Zabzamech, as well as their neighbors Lemaria, Etropia, and Ariana, are completely made up—and not in the way that all countries are made up, in the way that the United States Army has written over 800 pages of lore about them. And that's just Eurasia. The US Army has, in fact, invented a whole alternate world of countries and conflicts and crises they can train themselves in—all of which begs the question, why would you do that? And also, why are my Etropian allies always so late to our meetings? The second one has a quick answer—Etropians, as a people, do not value punctuality. I know this because it's laid out in this much detail in the 2015 description of the fake Caucasus operational environment the Army wrote up. Etropia is part of Date World, the US Army's official training environment which meticulously describes histories, cultures, militaries, tensions, geography, flags, and more across dozens of fake countries across our real world. What country is this? Did you say Sweden? You fool! That's Arnland, Tariq, and Framland. You look ridiculous right now. What's that? Did you say Russia? No! That's Denovia! Aw, do you think this is the Philippines? That's North and South Torbia, stupid baby! That's not Iran! That's Ariana! Hold space! US Army and other military units fight, defeat, and are defeated by these fake countries all the time in field exercises, often, though not exclusively, held at the Fort Irwin National Training Center in California, or the Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana. Soldiers might have to liberate Etropia, or get weapons out of the hands of pro-Denovian insurgents, or clear IEDs in Ariana, or liberate Etropia, or convince a local leader in Lamaria to give you information about a terrorist organization, or even liberate Etropia. American troops spend a lot of time liberating Etropia. The idea is that the folks at the training center will drop a scenario that directly mirrors whatever real-life mission a unit is going to, and have them practice it as realistically as possible to prove they're ready before they deploy—and they make it hard. There's an entire unit, specifically the 1st Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment, whose primary job is to play the role of whatever opposing force a unit faces in training. If you're liberating Etropia, they're the Denovians. If you're overthrowing Etropia, they're the Etropians. The first time you run the exercise, they'll have the weapons, training, and behavior your real opposition will probably have IRL. But if you complete your simulated mission, they don't just wave a white flag. They run it back again, but harder. Maybe they give them the tank and tell them to fight like they have a death wish. See if you can win then. Oh, you still didn't? Okay, well, now communications are down and we gave them another tank and six Tigers. Also, you're out of food. Can you do it now? And no, in case you're wondering, the 1st Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment is not very popular amongst their peers. In fairness, they're the US military's version of theater kids, and they spend their days fighting against the US military—it's like they don't even want to be liked. Doing all these field exercises helps ensure units are ready for their missions, in the best, worst, and deadliest scenarios, before they deploy. But why do it all against fake countries? The first and most important reason is avoiding confusion. As a matter of policy, no real countries, groups, or individuals are allowed to be enemies in unclassified scenarios, including all training materials. Geopolitics are a delicate thing, and nobody wants to accidentally start World War 3 because of foreign government spots with appear-to-be-US-plans-to-invade-Azerbaijan-but-are-in-fact-training-exercises-just-in-case. There are real countries on the map of Day World—they're Singapore—hi, Singapore! But you'll never fight against them, lest something leak and cause a freakout and or war. So, they have to use fake countries, but for conflict with a fake country to be realistic enough to be a good training scenario, that fake country needs to be part of a fake world that's as complicated and interconnected as ours. If you came to HAI army training and I was like, okay, for today's scenario we're going to liberate Blurnsley from the Blue K to prepare us to actually liberate Guernsey from the UK, and your unit easily overwhelmed the Blue K army, you might be awfully surprised when you get to real Guernsey and the entirety of NATO comes to the UK's aid, gives machine guns to the civilians, and flattens you like a bug. Maybe you would've been prepared for that if your training scenario included Blato, but they didn't, so you have died. Day World is all about making training scenarios that are a few shades off from reality, but still relevant to the kinds of tensions, tactics, and technologies soldiers might find when they actually deploy. As such, while the countries in Day World are fake, they're based on real data and intelligence assessments from real countries, with just enough fake stuff mixed in to avoid confusion. Genovia isn't Russia. It doesn't use a Russian flag, it doesn't have Russia's exact borders or history, but it was a global superpower that had a tough go of it in the early 90s, is doing better lately thanks to rising oil prices, and has a pretty entangled set of interests with the state immediately to its south, all of which make it a much more relevant foe for the US army to train themselves against than, say, Narnia, Gondor, or Genovia. But while Day World is basically just a bunch of pages of fake-life lore, some fake countries used for US military training get very real. This is a bunch of counties in North Carolina, but if you're taking the final test to become a Green Beret, it's the People's Republic of Pineland—a US ally that helped us out in both World Wars, Korea, and Iraq. To earn your Green Beret, you and about 200 other candidates must organize a guerrilla army within Pineland, and, among other things, kill a strongman who's been torturing guerrilla fighters. And that strongman's name is Jose Cuervo. At this time I must remind all HI viewers that I did not write the Pineland lore or the Special Forces final exam. If I had, the enemy would not be named after an innocent tequila—he would be named Brian McManus. During Robin's Sage, the final exam in question, about 1,500 North Carolinian locals volunteer to pay various Pinelanders—guerrilla fighters, medics, civilians, enemies, allies, etc. They carry Pineland IDs and Pinelandian currency, Dawn, which is signed by the Pineland Defense Minister, who I'm sure has a perfectly normal name. Just checking… oh, oh, ok, well his name is Seymour Bombs. Anyway, you parachute in, organize transportation with the local, clear security checkpoints, make evacuation routes for the wounded, pay for things with Dawn, bribe the cops with Dawn, kill Cuervo, and completely live in Pineland until the test is done. Pineland, Etropia, Danovia—all these exist because, for various good reasons, the United States Army does not use real-world conflicts as training exercise. And what they've built instead is an alternate-universe Earth so detailed it would make even the most committed D&D dungeon master blush. And I totally get why they have this, but it doesn't make it any less funny to me. Like, it's so detailed. Here's a chart of how all the fake Indo-Pacific countries feel about each other, which smacks of the one I used to track tensions in the Love Island Villa. Here's a description of a guerrilla fighter group called the Falcon Brothers. Here's a description of Kujenga's school structure. There's so much in here, and it's wild to me that some kid enlisted in the military to drive a tank or whatever, only to end up penning Danovian lore full-time. So not as wild as all the ones who enlisted and ended up in an improv troupe. So Danovia et al. are fake, but you know what's real? The positive impact you can make, for free, by adding this video's sponsor, Tab for Ending Animal Suffering, to your browser. By doing so, you'll be supporting the Humane League, an organization that's driving real, institutional change that helps alleviate suffering for animals confined in factory farms. And their advocacy has actually worked. For example, they got the percentage of hens living cage-free in the US from 3% to 45%. And while you can support their work by cutting them a check for $1.9 million if you've got it, you can also just join the many Tab for a Cause users who have collectively raised over $1.9 million for charity just by opening Tabs. You know Tabs, you have at least 49 of them open right now. If you add Tab for Ending Animal Suffering to your browser, whenever you open a new tab, you'll get a couple little ads in the corner, and the revenue from those ads will head straight to the Humane League. It's completely free, and you can get started in less than 30 seconds by clicking the link in the description. So go forth, open more tabs, save the world.