Techno-fetishism:
Making
War Fun as Hell.
When George W. Bush hitched a ride on a Navy S-3B Viking and landed
on the USS Abraham Lincoln to declare an end to major combat operations
in Iraq, there was more at work than just slick PR. Bush, who
was visibly thrilled by the experience, enabled the American public
to vicariously share in the excitement of an aircraft carrier
landing. All around the country, viewing audiences reveled in
his machismo display of technology.
This worship of militarism has become such an integral part of
pop culture that even the occasional peacenik can’t help
but ohh and ahh at air shows and flyovers. When those pinnacles
of technological prowess zoom past faster than the speed of sound,
the victims of their weaponry are instantly forgotten. This shouldn’t
surprise us. Ever since recognizing the danger of so-called “Vietnam
Syndrome,” the military-industrial complex, with the help
of the entertainment industry, has been sanitizing and glorifying
weapons of war. And with today’s coalescence of cutting-edge
toys, video games, movies, and reality TV, warfare has never been
so enthralling.
ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS
The wargasms start young. Many of us have fond memories of those
little green army men or afternoons spent playing with G.I. Joes.
But with the advent of the “war on terror,” demand
for militarized toys reached a fevered pitch that bordered on
absurdity. For the first time, playthings were being designed
to fit within the backdrop of current conflicts. One of the most
notorious examples of this involved the “Forward Command
Post.” Released in time for Christmas 2002, the toy was
a bombed-out dollhouse transformed into a makeshift base. Consumer
outcry soon led to its discontinuance, but the rollout of similar
ultra-realistic toys continued undaunted.
There was the “Battle Command Post Two-Story Headquarters”
– another civilian home turned battle station – and
action figures modeled after military units serving in Afghanistan
or Iraq. Militarized teddy-bears became popular, including the
“Shock and Awe” twin bear set. And to top it off,
September 2003 saw the release of “Elite Force Aviator:
George W. Bush” – a 12” tall poseable “recreation
of the Commander-in-Chief's appearance during his historic Aircraft
Carrier landing” – allowing kids to act out the publicity
stunt at home. Not to be outdone, in 2006 the Army released it’s
own custom line of “Real Heroes” figurines. These
toys completely obliterated the line between make-believe and
reality by depicting actual soldiers that had served in the occupation
of Iraq.
THE MILITARY-NINTENDO COMPLEX
Action figures are all well and good, but they don’t come
close to the thrill of a shoot ‘em up videogame. While electronic
games based around modern military conflict, such as 2003’s
Conflict Desert Storm II: Back to Baghdad, seem inevitable,
now a revolutionary online game called Kuma/War allows
participants to play out televised war events just days after
they air. Highlights include missions that recreated the killing
of Saddam Hussein’s sons and the U.S. raid on Fallujah.
Before indulging in fantasies of gunning down insurgents in Iraq,
players are briefed with news clippings and the advice of real
military officers.
“Kuma/War enables consumers to experience actual
missions of real soldiers in the war on terror,” said Keith
Halper, CEO of Kuma Reality Games. “Players have to devise
the tactics and make the hard choices in some of the most important
events of our time. For our subscribers, we make the headlines
real.”
Perhaps more insidious than this complete merger of current events
and virtual warfare is the burgeoning relationship between game
designers and the military itself. This reciprocal interchange
came to a head in 1999 with the founding of the Institute for
Creative Technologies (ICT). The ICT, launched in California with
a $50 million budget donated by the U.S. Army, was designed to
link up the military with the entertainment and videogame industries.
The result was whirlwind of projects intended to be commercially
viable while dually serving as combat simulators for soldiers.
Titles developed with the ICT include Rainbow 6: Rogue Spear
and Full Spectrum Warrior (the Army’s version is
called Full Spectrum Command ), both of which went on
to become major financial successes. The Marines followed suit
with the commercial release of one of their simulators under the
moniker Close Combat: First to Fight. But the ultimate
manifestation of this war game revolution came in the form of
America’s Army. Developed with $5 million in U.S.
tax dollars, America’s Army was released by the
U.S. Army in 2002 as a completely free, interactive recruiting
tool – marketing war as the perfect leisure time activity.
FROM SILVER SCREEN TO GLOWING BOX
Putting a pretty face on global conflict can’t be fully
realized without the help of “liberal” Hollywood.
In November of 2001, presidential advisor Karl Rove led a series
of closed door meetings with executives and directors from Tinseltown
in order to ensure that any depictions of the “war on terror”
would be adequately patriotic. There was really nothing new here
– ever since WWII, Hollywood has allowed the military to
modify its scripts in order to gain access to expertise and equipment,
and films like Top Gun (1986) and Behind Enemy Lines
(2001) have served as overt recruitment commercials.
“The former head of the Marine Corps film office, Matt Morgan,
he told me he joined the military after seeing Top Gun,”
said David Robb, author of Operation Hollywood, in an
interview with Mother Jones. “People are going
off to war and getting killed, in part because of some movie that
they saw that was adjusted by the military.”
But a new medium is capable of making militarism seem even more
enticing: reality TV. The patriotic fervor of the post-9/11 environment
led to collaborations between numerous TV channels, Hollywood
directors, and the entertainment liaisons (yes, they actually
have these) of each branch of the armed forces. TBS produced War
Games, Fox produced Bootcamp, USA produced Combat
Missions, and CBS produced American Fighter Pilot.
In 2002, ABC upped the ante by teaming up with the Pentagon, producer
Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun, Black Hawk Down,
Pearl Harbor), and reality TV guru Bertram Van Munster
(Cops, The Amazing Race) to create Profiles
From the Front Line – a sanitized reality soap that
followed soldiers in Afghanistan with cameras. The show, which
Bruckheimer described as “a salute to our military,”
aired from February to March of 2003 and became the basis of the
phenomenon called “embedded reporting.”
WAR AND ENTERTAINMENT, SYNTHESIZED
Thanks to the embedding of journalists within military units,
the invasion of Iraq played out like a scripted, edge-of-your-seat
action movie. Americans were treated to planned spectacles such
as the “rescue” of Jessica Lynch (which later spawned
the made-for-TV drama Saving Private Lynch) and the “spontaneous”
toppling of Saddam’s statue – events that were nothing
more than masterful manipulations of the media by the U.S military.
Any reports of the real costs of war were glossed over in favor
of statistical breakdowns on the armaments used by Coalition Forces.
Anchors like NBC’s John Elliot would gleefully show off
the latest bombs and fighting vehicles, complete with CG animations
of the weapons in action. It seemed war had simply become a testing
ground for our favorite testosterone-inducing toys.
The mass-media has replaced the brutality of humanity’s
most gruesome endeavor with unadulterated techno-fetishism. Military
recruitment ads have latched onto this obsession and now focus
almost exclusively on the gadgets and gizmos of war – appealing
to the child within. But how are potential recruits going to make
an informed choice when the war they’re familiar with is
nothing more than a game without any real life consequences? It’s
time to remember that even if make-believe war can be fun as hell,
real war is anything but.
By
Jason Glover
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