Militarism, the Anti-Russia Campaign, and Video Game Propaganda

https://www.newsweek.com/call-duty-modern-warfare-highway-death-russia-gulf-war-1468207

I quit reading Newsweek years ago and as a consequence missed this 2019 story. The video game industry is already replete with pro-military propaganda and yet in this case it's worse than insidious, a blatant attempt to lie and manipulate history.

Stories emerged years ago of the collaboration between the US military and the video game industry, particularly surrounding games like 'Call of Duty' which the military views as a recruiting tool – a clear expression of the institution's moral bankruptcy in which carnage is viewed as a game, and soldiers are wooed on the basis of human beings being viewed as non-entities, mere points to be scored.

The end result of this kind of morality is seen in figures like Kyle Rittenhouse, who (based on his statements) views life as cheap and as inconsequential as the data-bundles which make up human beings on a game-screen.

The Highway of Death was but one of the controversies surrounding the First Gulf War in 1991. The US-led coalition carried out an aerial massacre of Iraqi troops retreating from Kuwait, many of whom only wanted to surrender. No one really knows how many died but there were terrible pictures of hundreds of disabled vehicles, dead bodies, and testimonies (along with a few photos) by the troops sent in to 'clean up' the horrific scenes – one of which showed Americans literally bulldozing corpses into a pile or mass grave. The pictures shocked the public and there was a concentrated effort to suppress them and any stories getting out about those events.

It made the Americans look like Nazis, and to this day no one really knows what the death toll was. The official figure is in the hundreds but many consider the number to be absurd and insist the true death toll is certainly over a thousand and likely in the thousands.

It was a war crime and a blight on the US 'good war' narrative concerning the First Gulf War – and yet most of the public didn't care. In fact I remember many people celebrating the event. It was another conflict based on lies and deception from start to finish and was in reality an exercise connected to US geopolitical messaging in the dying hours of the Cold War – very much akin to the 1989 operation in Panama that also resulted in thousands of deaths.

Call of Duty is attempting to plant false seeds in the minds of its consumers by associating a fictionalised version of these events with the Russians. Part of the widespread Anti-Russian campaign, this instance of historical revisionism and blatant mendacity is not unique. In another iteration of the game, the player participates in a massacre of Russian civilians and this is not the only instance of Anti-Russia sentiment to be expressed in the Call of Duty game-world.

Russia has committed its share of war crimes and evils to be sure but the US is about the last country that has a right to point a figure of accusation. How would the US public react if a video game built its plotline on US war crimes in places like Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, and the like?

It's clear the games are meant to prep the younger generation for future wars and yet in some cases the propaganda is more targeted and specific. As we remember during the first Cold War, the Pentagon believes the public has to be taught to hate the Russians. It was a theme that dominated the television and movie world when I was growing up and after a twenty year hiatus (1990-2010), the campaign is back and picking up steam.

Lies abound and as Christians we should be absolutely certain that such 'games' have no place in our homes. Leave this kind of filth and lies to the dead who bury their dead. Do not celebrate these sick people nor let them affect and shape our minds or the minds of our children.