Pentagon War Game Includes Scenario for Military Response to Domestic Gen Z
Rebellion
By Nick Turse, The Intercept
07 June 20
In the face of protests composed largely of young people, the presence of
America's military on the streets of major cities has been a controversial
development. But this isn't the first time that Generation Z - those born
after 1996 - has popped up on the Pentagon's radar.
Documents obtained by The Intercept via the Freedom of Information Act
reveal that a Pentagon war game, called the 2018 Joint Land, Air and Sea
Strategic Special Program, or JLASS, offered a scenario in which members of
Generation Z, driven by malaise and discontent, launch a "Zbellion" in
America in the mid-2020s.
Read the document here.
The Zbellion plot was a small part of JLASS 2018, which also featured
scenarios involving Islamist militants in Africa, anti-capitalist
extremists, and ISIS successors. The war game was conducted by students and
faculty from the U.S. military's war colleges, the training grounds for
prospective generals and admirals. While it is explicitly not a national
intelligence estimate, the war game, which covers the future through early
2028, is "intended to reflect a plausible depiction of major trends and
influences in the world regions," according to the more than 200 pages of
documents.
According to the scenario, many members of Gen Z - psychologically scarred
in their youth by 9/11 and the Great Recession, crushed by college debt, and
disenchanted with their employment options - have given up on their hopes
for a good life and believe the system is rigged against them. Here's how
the origins of the uprising are described:
Both the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Great Recession greatly
influenced the attitudes of this generation in the United states, and
resulted in a feeling of unsettlement and insecurity among Gen Z. Although
Millennials experienced these events during their coming of age, Gen Z lived
through them as part of their childhood, affecting their realism and world
view . many found themselves stuck with excessive college debt when they
discovered employment options did not meet their expectations. Gen Z are
often described as seeking independence and opportunity but are also among
the least likely to believe there is such a thing as the "American Dream,"
and that the "system is rigged" against them. Frequently seeing themselves
as agents for social change, they crave fulfillment and excitement in their
job to help "move the world forward." Despite the technological proficiency
they possess, Gen Z actually prefer person-to-person contact as opposed to
online interaction. They describe themselves as being involved in their
virtual and physical communities, and as having rejected excessive
consumerism.
In early 2025, a cadre of these disaffected Zoomers launch a protest
movement. Beginning in "parks, rallies, protests, and coffee shops" - first
in Seattle; then New York City; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Las Vegas;
and Austin - a group known as Zbellion begins a "global cyber campaign to
expose injustice and corruption and to support causes it deem[s]
beneficial."
During face-to-face recruitment, would-be members of Zbellion are given
instructions for going to sites on the dark web that allow them to access
sophisticated malware to siphon funds from corporations, financial
institutions, and nonprofits that support "the establishment." The gains are
then converted to Bitcoin and distributed to "worthy recipients" including
fellow Zbellion members who claim financial need. Zbellion leadership, says
the scenario, assures its members that their Robin Hood-esque wealth
redistribution is not only untraceable by law enforcement but "ultimately
justifiable," as targets are selected based on "secure polling" of "network
delegates." Although its origins are American, by the latter 2020s, Zbellion
activities are also occurring across Europe and cities throughout Africa,
Asia, and the Middle East, including Nairobi, Kenya; Hanoi, Vietnam; and
Amman, Jordan.
In the world of JLASS 2018, Gen Z's most militant members have essentially
taken to privately taxing large corporations and other institutions to
combat income inequality or, as the war gamers put it, using the "cyber
world to spread a call for anarchy."
The JLASS war game emerges in the context of the Pentagon playing a
controversial and visible role in the unfolding domestic protests against
racism and police brutality in the U.S. National Guard units have been
deployed in various locations already, and some active-duty military forces
were sent by the Trump administration to the Washington D.C. area.
"I think the sooner that you mass and dominate the battlespace, the quicker
this dissipates and we can get back to the right normal," said Secretary of
Defense Mark Esper earlier this week during a teleconference call that also
saw President Donald Trump deride U.S. governors for their "weak" response
to protests over the killing of George Floyd. Trump even declared that he
had put Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "in
charge." Later that day, after security forces drove protesters and clergy
from Washington, D.C.'s Lafayette Square with tear gas, Milley, dressed in
combat fatigues, followed Trump, Attorney General William Barr, Esper, and
others to a roundly condemned photo op in front of St. John's Episcopal
Church.
This came amid the backdrop of threats being issued to employ active-duty
military to forcefully suppress protests, and the deployment of
rapid-reaction units from the 82nd Airborne Division to bases just outside
Washington, D.C. With retired admirals and generals, among others,
excoriating Trump - and to a lesser extent Esper and Milley - for breeches
of long-standing norms in civilian-military relations, it's worth
considering how the Pentagon's war gamers chose to focus the military's
attention on a generation now demonstrating peacefully in America's streets.
