Removing our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan may be a complicated and somewhat ignoble task, but who’s to blame for the carnage when we’re occupying a place is a no-brainer.
Our military occupations rely on a steady stream of kids fueled to serve, many of them working class kids with dim prospects for college and careers in the current high-unemployment climate. The dismal economy is good for recruitment.
Thanks to propaganda, a massive public relations effort and poor analytical coverage of the wars, the military looks good to many kids. It’s sold as a right of passage to manhood – now also to womanhood. You will face danger and your own mortality. You’ll be part of a team. Once you’re in, all worries about finding a job will evaporate. And the military does all your thinking for you.
At first glance, the author seems to be bringing disparate elements together for his essay. Is he more than anti-war, being critical of American militarism? Or is he instead anti-military?
Then there’s Medal Of Honor, an Xbox game that features a special ops warrior who looked to me more like a Hell’s Angel biker than the clean-cut guys in John Wayne’s movie version of The Green Berets. The Special Ops fantasy look has changed.
The sanitized image of the Green Berets in John Wayne's movie probably doesn't reflect what they actually looked liked in Vietnam, those who weren't serving merely in the capacity of advisors and trainers. As for those who are currently in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the characters in the Medal of Honor game get their look from them. The beard and everything else is supposed to help SF soldiers go "native." The author would know this if he had taken the time to talk to SF soldiers.
Video games help recruit young men for the U.S. military. They are also used by the military for training and also for psychological conditioning.
It’s a natural progression from these video games to the highly computerized military system that now features drones piloted by former teen computer-game geeks. Start out blasting fictional video people and today's military will make it a short trip to blasting video people who happen to be real, thousands of miles away.
Some of the military piloting games, not the first-person shooters. Aren't soldiers supposed to kill? If so, then who is to say that video games aren't doing their job when used by the military. But as a recruiting tool -- we can blame the U.S. military for games being used in such a way, or we can blame the civilian leadership that has control of the military. Will the author write a letter to Obama to express his concerns?
Ultimately, the author wants to claim that WikiLeaks and those who give military secrets are needed to counterbalance the influence the military has in shaping our minds about the war. Even if such leaks provide information about crimes such as torture and U.S. failures, can they convince the American people that our wars are wrong on any basis other than consequentialism?
The use of video games to promote the military and enlistment is wrong, but is the U.S. military and government behind this? Or is it another example of the cooperation that exists between the government and the corporate world? I do think that video games cannot teach the virtue that is needed for the citizen-soldier, and while such games are at best morally-neutral (and they might not be), without such a moral formation, the young gamer may be corrupted by his gaming experience, acquiring an unrealistic view about military life and war.
Would allowing teenagers to participate in a militia be an acceptable alternative to the author?
Call of Duty: Black Ops
IGN
Medal Of Honor Tier One
Part 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
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