Blueprint for Gulf War II
from the just-like-the-last-gulf-war,-only-better dept.
The New York Times (via the Financial Times) has a story outlining likely scenarios for dubya’s upcoming Gulf War: The Motion Picture. Originally the plan had been to launch the war this fall, but now the big thinkers have pushed the war’s debut back to early 2003, with the extra months being used to wrap up that pesky Israeli-Palestinian plot line.
January 11th, 2003 at 8:47 am
Press release:
Danish peace movement releases satirical PC game cover for Gulf War 2
23 December, 2002
The Danish peace movement has launched a satirical PC game cover advertising Gulf War 2. Close consideration reveals that this is a game in which the challenges of the gameplay are matched by the difficulties of marketing the product.
Billed as “the PC game sequel that has been ten years in the making,” this unlikely entertainment product is directed towards those who, like George Bush, Sr., “found Gulf War 1 much too easy.” Indeed, players may soon find that they have bitten off more than they can chew, as suggested in the subtitle, The Rude Awakening.
According to the cover, the player’s mission is to “penetrate the tribal area of Greater Baghdad and replace the evil dictator Saddam with a military democracy under General Tommy Franks.” Gulf War veteran Scott Ritter suggests that the gameplay involved in fulfilling this mission is likely to prove a hair-raising experience, even for the most hardened of hard-core gamers.
“Any effort to hunt Saddam down could be every bit as difficult as tracking the Somali warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid,” says Ritter in a recent analysis, “with the consequences no less dire.”
The hunt for Aidid in 1993 quickly ended in a humiliating defeat for the American special forces assigned to the task. The events of the operation have subsequently been depicted in the feature film, Black Hawk Down.
The game of Gulf War 2 has been developed by Perle & Wolfowitz Studios, a clear reference to Deputy Secretary of Defense Richard Perle and chairman of the Defense Policy Board Paul Wolfowitz.
These two ultra-conservative figures are in no small part responsible for the adoption of the policy of unilateralism expressed in the National Security Strategy Document of September 2002. Gulf War 2, if it goes ahead, will represent a test case for this new, go-it-alone policy.
According to the cover, the game is to be published by the Office of Global Communications. But clearly, this game represents an enormous advertising challenge, even for a public relations agency with the vast resources of Bush Inc. behind it.
Certainly, there are signs that segments of the US market have already bought the concept, but if anything, consumer resistance on foreign markets seems to be growing. In this light, the game is destined to present a crucial test of the strength of Bush Inc.’s foremost registered trademarks, Axis of Evil and War on Terrorism.
But despite all the challenges, global distribution of this highly hazardous production may yet proceed; release is said to be “pending plausible pretext.”
The satirical game cover is inspired by spoof film posters based on Star Wars Episode II, produced by the British peace movement and circulating on the Internet in recent months. (These posters can be viewed on the website of the Stop the War Coalition, http://www.stopwar.org.uk/resources.asp.)
In a new variation on the theme, the Danish peace movement has chosen to represent the proposed invasion of Iraq as a computer action game rather than a film.
Those who remember the television coverage of Operation Desert Storm will have little difficulty in understanding the artist’s choice. CNN’s presentation of that operation bore an uncanny resemblance to a primitive video game, where the night sky over Baghdad was lit up by green streaks and flashes that concealed the real horrors of the bombing campaign.
The artistic game cover can be viewed on the website of the Christiansborg Peace Watch, http://www.fredsvagt.dk/english/wargame.html, and on the website of the Danish Committee for Peace and Development in Iraq, http://www.danirak.dk.
The satirical art work is produced and distributed as a seasonal entertainment in solidarity with the courageous people of the American peace movement, with wishes for every success in the New Year.
END.
For further information, e-mail cassiu5@yahoo.co.uk