Dying for Big Brother The Orwellian Way

[hcap]

http://www.truthout.org/article/us-military-recruits-children

US Military Recruits Children: "America's Army" Video Game Violates International Law

...When players walk into Army sponsored tournaments, the government knows more about them then they may suppose. The game records players' data and statistics in a massive database called Andromeda, which records every move a player makes and links the information to their screen name. With this information tracking system, gameplay serves as a military aptitude tester, tracking overall kills, kills per hour, a player's virtual career path, and other statistics.

....The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has found that Army use of the game, and its recruiting practice in general, violate international law. In May, the ACLU published a report that found the armed services "regularly target children under 17 for military recruitment. Department of Defense instruction to recruiters, the US military's collection of information of hundreds of thousands of 16-year-olds, and military training corps for children as young as 11 reveal that students are targeted for recruitment as early as possible. By exposing children under 17 to military recruitment, the United States military violates the Optional Protocol." The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, ratified by the Senate in December 2002, protects the rights of children under 16 from military recruitment and deployment to war.

[Snag]

hcap, I think the tin foil on your windows needs to be replaced.

The last time I looked the US military is voluntary.

As for aptitude tester, maybe your ACLU buddies will want to look at high schools that "make" students take standardized tests for admission to college. Don't forget, colleges have "recruiters" too.

[hcap]

Yeah sure. How many high schools or colleges track "kills per hour"??

You are so enamored with the romance of the military that you miss when it oversteps its' bounds. The military may be necessary, but the lockstepping military mindset is not. Certainly the application of psych ops to the recruitment of kids is Orwellian and screwy.

[Tom]

I think the title of this thread shows just what kind of a person you are hcap.
It isn't pretty.

[lsbets]

I am confident in saying Hcap has no idea what the "military mindset" is other than the cartoonish fantasy he's formed under his tin foil hat.

[Tom]

Summer wardrobes should feature bright spring colors. Lucky for us all, tin foil goes with all colors.

[JustRalph]

The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, ratified by the Senate in December 2002, protects the rights of children under 16 from military recruitment and deployment to war.

Sure glad we didn't have this "international law" after Dec 7 1941. Many volunteered at 16............

as soon as I hear, "International law" I ignore it.............

[hcap]

I am confident in saying Hcap has no idea what the "military mindset" is other than the cartoonish fantasy he's formed under his tin foil hat.The Military mindset is rampant here. Tin foil or not, this "recruitment" technique is Big Brother 101. I thought republicans were concerned with runaway powers and abuse of government? I guess pushing kids into fantasy land and exaggerating the romance of war sanitized and paintball-like is just fine and dandy here. Video, even violent video games may be Ok as part of a kids afternoon. Not as a kids active preparation and recruitment for war and the military.


"....Local recruiters also use the game to draw in high school children for recruitment opportunities. Recruiters stage area tournaments with free pizza and sodas; winners receive Xbox game consoles, free copies of "America's Army" and iPods. Game centers are also set up at state fairs and public festivals with replica Humvees and .50 caliber machine guns, where children as young as 13 can test out the life-sized equipment.

..Most troubling of all, these recruitment and training techniques are targeted at children. Apart from sanitizing the violence of war, the Army toned down the gore in the game to get a Teen rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board, the equivalent of a PG rating on movies, so that children as young as 13 could play"

Sure glad we didn't have this "international law" after Dec 7 1941. Many volunteered at 16............

as soon as I hear, "International law" I ignore it.............
Ratified by the Senate

...The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, ratified by the Senate in December 2002, protects the rights of children under 16 from military recruitment and deployment to war. The US subsequently entered a binding declaration that raised the minimum age to 17,

[lsbets]

Hcap, please define the so called "military mindset" that you have cooked up in lefty la la land? I think its safe to say that you would know less about the way folks in the military think than you do about almost everything else.

[Dave Schwartz]

Gee, all I can say as thanks to the link for a great new game!

[hcap]

Let's start with military speak. The art of making the act of killing impersonal thru' words and jargon. Yeah I know it expedites what has to be done, but the very usage of terms like "Collateral damage" create new pathways in the brain that allow actions generally condoned by civil society to be enacted by quieting conscience.

I will accept the necessity of a Military, but not the application of desensitizing ones humanity-The Military Mindset-outside the battlefield. Choosing war first over diplomacy is one symptom. This raging bull of ego sometimes lacks a rider with that most important of human attributes-the conscience.

I do not believe all soldiers or all commanders succumb completely to this process, but too often it leaves residues of self-justification and self- righteousness that may interfere with civil judgments. And short circuit other political choices.

[JustRalph]

[Ratified by the Senate

...The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, ratified by the Senate in December 2002, protects the rights of children under 16 from military recruitment and deployment to war. The US subsequently entered a binding declaration that raised the minimum age to 17,

You think I have any respect for the Senate? I could give a damn what they say? Ratify, spew or dribble............ They are out of touch........ as usual

[Snag]

Let's start with military speak. The art of making the act of killing impersonal thru' words and jargon.

How in the hell do you know what is "military speak"? Killing is neither "impesonal" nor can not be expressed in words or jargon. If you think that being in the military "desensitizing ones humanity" you are very sadly mistaken. It is very plain that you know nothing of what you speak and are just repeating what someone else has told you or you have read.

[hcap]

The term "Collateral damage" creates a desensitized psychological "space" allowing and excusing civilian deaths, without feeling as many of those pangs of conscience you would feel if it occurred outside of the Military. Not my jargon. The Pentagons. It is accepted it as part of the cost of doing business.

The calculation reduced to just that--a calculation.

[Snag]

The term "Collateral damage" creates a desensitized psychological "space" allowing and excusing civilian deaths, without feeling as many of those pangs of conscience you would feel if it occurred outside of the Military. Not my jargon. The Pentagons. It is accepted it as part of the cost of doing business.

The calculation reduced to just that--a calculation.

The cost of doing business......? You are out of your mind if you feel that way.

You started this thread by pointing to kids being used by the Military. Now you have turned to telling us that collateral damage is the cost of doing business. With all due respect to your limited scope of understanding and experience, please give it up.

[rastajenk]

Choosing war first over diplomacy is one symptom. Who does that? Only the thugs and tyrants that lefties try so hard to protect and justify.

It certainly doesn't describe a U.S. military mindset.

[boxcar]

What's the matter, 'cap, slow day for you? Bored? Have nothing better to do that post nonsense?. Here's a clue for you: Big Gov created the Big Brother Monster way back when it created the Income Tax system. And the monster has been growing ever since working its way into virtually every area of our lives.

Boxcar