Video Games blamed for US Massacre in Iraq

[Void(null)]

The Story was announced on yahoo news [http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100406/twl-let-us-shoot-us-troops-fire-on-journ-3fd0ae9.html]

A tragic loss of life, innocent civilians die when they are mistaken for insurgents. So whats to blame for this loss of life? Is it lack of conformation? Is it a break in the chain of command giving authorization to fire on innocent?

Nope... Its obviously "Generation X-Box" going for high scores.

Why bother challenging the way the military conducts itself in urban warfare, when we can just blame it all on Video Games?

 

[Riobux]

It's not the army's fault for not correctly depersonalising their troops, the fault of the soldiers nor is it the fault of the guy who gave them the go-ahead.

No, obviously video games caused this. Which begs the question, how long until someone photoshops the video to make it look like a game?

 

[SturmDolch]

High scores? What is this, 1992? Seriously, cut that crap. Things like this and saying I get "points" for killing hookers just proves how little these people know about video games.

I think what you could really blame this on is the lack of humanity in looking at a black and white screen. It really is like a game. You don't feel anything for a few people on a screen. If the guys were on the ground, with knives, and could have slit the throats of the other men, I doubt most of them would have. I think it's a good thing we have this lack of humanity. Otherwise, our team's KDRs would be pretty low (sorry).

 

[fix-the-spade]

Why bother challenging the way the military conducts itself in urban warfare, when we can just blame it all on Video Games?

That's not quite what they were saying.

They said the pilots were treating war like a videogame, not that videogames were at fault. I'd be inclined to agree with them actually, it all seems very remote and detached from the cockpit of an Apache however many hundred metres away they were.

 

[Audioave10]

This kind of blame-game is getting old and tiresome.

 

[Sh0ckFyre]

Yes, because mistaking a camera for a rocket launcher has Call of Duty written all over it. Maybe somewhere in the cameraman's invisible earpiece was a commander going "ENEMY HELICOPTER INBOUND!!!"

So where are you, Jack Thompson...?

 

[Cabisco]

Well it's tragic certainly, and the way they were acting was actually as if it's a videogame. But I don't blame videogames themselves, just being in the military for a prolonged period where you get desensitised to things.

Hell, I miss just blaming the parents...

 

[Void(null)]

That was pretty much my thought. I haven't seen a game with a High Score in it for almost 2 decades and I guarantee you none of the 20-somethings in the Apache have ever "gone for the high score."

Top of the Rankings in Halo or Call of Duty I could see, but this isn't pong we are talking about. It's just such an amazingly ignorant statement and an obvious pushing of agenda.

 

[Reep]

That poor dead horse

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

Hasn't the conflict in Iraq gone on for more than 2 decades?... and their just now blaming video games? The inconsistency baffles me.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

The situation is not unexpected when your enemies often dress as civilians. Don't quite get the whole video game thing though.

Had they BEEN actual insurgents with a weapon capable of taking down a chopper, wouldn't it make more sense to take them out as quickly as possible?

 

[Wolfram23]

That's some retardedness to try to blame video games. Don't they realise soldiers have been this way SINCE FOREVER!? Killing is what they do, and a soldier wouldn't be mentally stable if they detested killing and hesitation = your death. Soldiers are trained to be ok with killing and death, even to some extent to mock it. Blaming games is pure stupidity.

 

[tsb247]

It is indeed tragic to see this sort of thing happen. The loss of innocent life in regrettable, but blaming video games?

The pilot and gunner seem to have gotten too trigger-happy for their own good, and this seems to be a reminder that the ROE should be adhered to more carefully.

I would also imagine that the anxiousness in the pilot and gunner's voices was due to the percieved urgency to fire on what they saw were armed insurgents. Sometimes the process of obtaining permission to fire on targets is long and drawn out, and the target may disappear before permission to fire is given. That easily explains the urgency in their voices. Most people don't realize that there is some bureaucracy involved in firing the weapon(s) on a military aircraft nowadays.

I know a guy who used to work with MQ-9s (formerly the, "Predator B," - Now the, "Reaper,") and he said it sometimes took 10 minutes or more for him to recieve permission to investigate or even fire on a threat. That's not even counting the fact that he then had to relay that back to the drone's pilot!

EDIT: The video also points out (at the end) that some insurgents actually were killed when that AH-64 fired on that group. It's just too bad they took out the innocents as well.

 

[Kouen]

Hey Video games are the global skape goat when it comes to not wanting to take the blame for something, even someone once tried to blame gta when he stole a car and led police through a huge police chase because of GTA, another good one was 3 teens firebombing cars yet again blaming video games. its beating the dead donkey xD maybe in 5 years no matter what goes wrong in our lives we will blame games, "Damn my car broke down and was late to work n got fired! Damn COD MW5!"

 

[Jim Grim]

Uh, they clearly weren't blaming video games in that article, I think the comparison was more that they were treating the people they were shooting at like virtual characters and trying to go for the 'high score.' In this case it seems to be you that's overeacting.

 

[Arkhangelsk]

That's not the games fault, it's them being fucking stupid. I can't stress this enough. Video games don't do anything bad. Stupid people do.

 

[evilninja60]

so...did they get the high score?

 

[Katana314]

HAHAHA, wow, this is rich.
"Military video games are a bad influence on the military!"
I guess this is their proof that some GTA players WILL go outside and kill people. It's their job. =p
Besides, the military actually tries to teach their soldiers to be somewhat desensitized. It's the best way to avoid traumatizing them all with the things they'll inevitably see.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I don't think the article is actually blaming video games, I think the author was just using that as an analogy. Of course that won't stop the anti-video game people from latching onto it like leeches.