Stop the War Makers. Hands Around the Lab. Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Never Again!
Aug 10, 1:30pm - 3pm, Robert Payne Park, 5800 Patterson Pass Road (at Vasco), Livermore

March for Immigrant Rights
Sep 20, 11am Assemble at Yerba Buena Gardens (Mission St. between 3rd & 4th), San Francisco; 12pm - March up Market St.; 1:30pm - Program & Festival at Civic Center.

Rally and March to Defeat Proposition 54
Sep 25, 12:00noon - Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley

Reportback from Palestine
Sep 27, 6:30pm - Redwood Gardens Community Room, 2951 Derby Street, Berkeley

End the Occupation! Bring the Troops Home Now!
Sep 28, Noon - Dolores Park, San Francisco - 12pm. Gather at Dolores Park, march to: 2pm - Rally at Civic Center

Forum: Defend Environmntal Justice, Defeat Prop. 54!
Sep 30, 7:00 PM - Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way, Berkeley.

In Celebration of the Free Speech Movement: The Berkeley ACLU Presents Larry Fly
Oct 6, 7:00 PM - Pauley Ballroom West, Berkeley campus

Stop the FTAA and School of the Americas
November 19-23, Miami and Colombus, GA.

Buy Nothing Day
November 28, Everywhere.

America's Army
Darwin BondGraham

The US army has developed a highly realistic and innovative PC videogame that puts you inside an army unit. You’ll face your first tour of duty along with your fellow soldiers. Gain experience as a soldier in the US army without ever leaving your desk. (US ARMY www.americasarmy.com)

I’ve always wanted to experience distant lands, exotic cultures, meet interesting people, and above all to kill them. And now I can!, without leaving the comfort of my desk. The United States Army has designed a sophisticated, high quality game free to download from the internet, which gives players a sense of what it’s like to enlist in America’s armed forces. No longer must we rely on the private sector to supply us with violent shoot em’ up and military themed entertainment. This is official. The Army has spent millions of dollars, and over 3 years developing this mother of all recruitment devices. The development was headed by the Army’s Office of Economic & Manpower Analysis with the goal of educating America’s youth about the realities of today’s Army. The Pentagon has correctly noted that very few mediums have the appeal and impact which videogames do on young Americans. The videogame platform is the most effective way of reaching America’s psychological children.

The game was put together by the Army’s Modeling Environments and Simulations Academic Group (MOVES) along with students of the Naval Post Graduate School in our very own backyard, Monterey California. According to the Army, the game “expresses the importance of the individual soldier in the Army.” The game is actually composed of two modules.

The first module is a standard bloodbath of wholesome red white and blue values. Players link onto an internet server and join up to 32 other players in the virtual war for freedom. Players are lumped into two opposing teams, with each team perceiving itself as the US armed forces, and their enemy generically as the “terrorist.” Players are given mission briefings, and then proceed to battle the “evildoers.” Mission scenarios include defending an oil pipeline in Alaska from maniacal America-haters who seek to cut off our nations vital black-blood, to complicated hostage rescues. Weapons include assault rifles, sniper rifles, and grenades. The fighting takes place in a 3D setting of wilderness, and urban landscapes.

Equally complex are the Rules Of Engagement (ROE). The army hasn’t simply created the Establishment’s version of “Grand Theft Auto 3.” This is not a venue for anarchical violence. Instead the killing is very organized and rational, just like the real thing! America’s Army has a strict code of rules which if violated can serve to virtually imprison the traitor. Included in the ROE are rules against slandering other players with racial, sexual, or religious profanities. Certainly this aspect of the game is unrealistic, as the military is an extremely sexist, homophobic, and racist institution. Remember the recent pictures of Air Force personnel writing “Terrorize this Fags!” in chalk on the bombs loaded on US bomber jets? Women have continually felt the hostility of patriarchy and sexism from the military’s academies to the battlefield. Racism has been thoroughly documented throughout the history of the armed forces as recently as the first call massacres of Blacks and Hispanics in South East Asia. Don’t forget the eager rapist GI’s on Okinawa, or the hot-dogging Air force pilots who have killed dozens of Italians with their low flying antics. Perhaps the only accurate aspect of this rule would be the implications of calling your teammate a fag. As is with the military’s don’t ask don’t tell policy, any such speech will get you booted. Firing on your fellow soldiers can also get you virtually courtmarshalled (this is unfortunate because a massive cyber terrorist campaign against the Army’s virtual war on terror would be fun indeed!).

The second module of the game is not as bloodthirsty as the first, but equally sinister. It involves the creation of a character who will pursue a career in the Army. Players chose from attributes such as “loyalty, duty, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage.” This build your own puppet game simulates the entire service career of your character from enlistment, basic training, through retirement. Your customized mindless bloodthirsty robot is portrayed in a series of dramatic film-like scenes, with the hope of convincing the player that perhaps a lifelong military career, or even a four year tour of duty punctuated with a healthy killing spree in Iraq could be fun in real life.

I must give the Army credit for what is their most effective piece of propaganda ever. The game was released over the summer on July 4, and within a month had been downloaded approximately half a million times. If the number of downloads reflects the number of individual players, then the America’s virtual army outnumbers this nations actual armed forces. The benefits of this game for the US military are endless. Besides being an interactive, attractive advertisement for America’s armed forces, the game acts like a simulator for military life. Players eager to entertain themselves by becoming the invisible fist of the market are literally being trained for all lines of duty. The game acts like an orientation for prospective enlistees, a pre-training, or primer for the real thing. It’s realism, and Rules Of Engagement, emphasis on team play, and obedience act as an inviting and enjoyable first experience with disciplinary technology and submission to authority. The target audience, teens, and young men, are sure to enjoy what could be their first experience with the military, and that’s what the Pentagon is hoping. The popularity of the action packed mission module might be that last push over the edge of foolishness that prompt many young men and women into a short service, perhaps in time to experience the rush and entertainment of real combat. The intrigue of the career module could convince those already molded for uncritical obedience to pursue a lifelong path of professional murder for hire. Five Stars all the way! A killer smash hit sure to satisfy all those with sporting patriotic themed desktops.

As one player touts: “You’re Already Dead, I just Haven’t pulled the trigger yet.” - Chimera

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