While Wasting Time

Before becoming productive last evening, I spent time engaged in the consumption of mental junk food, i.e., watching a little TV. Whist so occupied, I came across an ad that I though was for a video game. Damn, was I mistaken.

It looks like the army is bumping up their recruitment drive with free videos like this one, which purport to demonstrate the excitement of being a playa' in the Special Forces. Well, not entirely free, if you think about it: you're required to supply all kinds of personal info to get your copy, including your birthdate--if I DID sign up, bells and whistles would go off in A LOT of places. You see, Col. Kurtz from Apocalypse Now wouldn't have anything on me, agewise.

Still, it was a pretty eerie ad. Like I said, at first it looked like nothing more than yet another "Blast the Camel Jockeys" video game, albeit with remarkably realistic graphics (although, as a non-gamer--or should I say 'non-gama'?--I have no idea as to the realism of modern computer games). The footage was undercut with a text scroll, which concluded with an odd message--something to the effect of "You're on assignment to follow the enemy from an undetected location. You've been given five days rations. It's now day twelve," blah, blah, blah, etc. etc., join the special forces, and here's a web page where you can get a free video...

So, the army is enticing folks with starvation rations?

Also--the footage was clearly designed to look a hell of a lot more like Afghanistan than Iraq--it was mountainous, rural terrain, i.e., not exactly Baghdad or Najaf. Now, sure, it's possible that they're looking only for "the best of the best," as it were, but something tells me most recruits will be learning how to counter urban guerrillas, not tribal warriors. Hmmm.

Oh, and slightly off topic, but: earlier this week, my copy of A Savage War of Peace, by Alistair Horne, arrived in the mail. I've only managed to get through a couple of chapters thus far, but I can already recommend it highly. A VERY thorough account (roughly 600 pages), it's not in print in the US, but the UK publisher not only took my $25 bucks or so, but shipped it on only about ten days--costing me barely three dollars. A stroke of luck, perhaps, because I have a real strong feeling that our Iraq misadventure has a precedent in recent history, and the precedent is Algeria. Maybe the particulars aren't QUITE the same, but the general picture is worth a look, if not a careful analysis. When I'm done with it, you can bet I'll have something to post--but, given the length of the volume, that might not be for a little while.