ok nux. i'll bite. i'm on both sides of the fence you see, ideologically, i abhor the use of military force. on the other hand, i have been a part of that very military force.
first off, video games do influence the perception of warfare. much like recruiting commercials and war movies do. they generally soften, our outright delete the "bad" parts, to show you brave men in their finest hour. the US army even has an official FPS as a recruitment tool.
on the other hand, there is no way to convey how much being in the military sucks.personally, that is. it's part of the shit they dont show you in any of that media i mentioned. you see people jumping out of airplanes, rappelling, doing all that cool hooah hooah shit. you dont see people sleeping in a muddy hole in the ground in the rain. you dont see endless hours of buffing floors. you dont see long hours and short pay. you dont see how difficult it is to keep up basic hygiene when you are miles from civilization.
i dont think FPS games are geared to make you want to join the military, in general. i think they help you to think of service members as superhuman gods. who always take orders from hot women for some reason.
as to how infantry help keep you safe at night... perhaps not so much these days. not in our nations, nux. but in the past of both, the infantry were integral from keeping the "barbaric hordes" at bay. and there still exists nations today that would have their populace suffer at the hands of foreign oppressors without their military. and ours, for that matter. take for example, south korea.
you see, nux, neither you nor i know what it's like to live and grow up in a country under threat of invasion. it has been so long since either of us have had to worry about it, our infrastructure is not built to handle a ground invasion. in korea, passes cut through hills are lined with walls shoring up lots of loose stone.... those walls are primed to blow out and make the road impassible. we dont conscript our citizens to guard a border with a hostile nation. its been over a hundred years since either of us has fought a ground war on our own soil.
some of the reason for this is the success we have both had in ground wars, owing to our advanced manufacturing processes, and world class training. another part is that both of us have shifted into waging economic wars, and preemptive battles.
while i do not agree with how we both constantly engage in war far from home, i will say it does build up the reputation we both have of "dont fuck with us".
oh, and you misunderstand the mindset of the common soldier. 95% of us, i'd say, have no care for "good and evil". to us, it is "us and them". there are a few hyperpatriots. most of the folks who went to basic with me, they said they joined for college money. i, myself, joined to have a job. but "us and them". most times, it does not matter who The Enemy is. they are The Enemy, they want to kill your buddies. the only way to stop them is to kill them. being in a unit makes you grow attached to everyone in it. there is a unity of thought, purpose, and action that is hard to describe. the lack of this is what makes me very uncomfortable in crowds nowadays. you come to love those you serve with. you may not like them, but you love them and trust them with your life, as they do with you. i would still kill and die for any of those who were in my troop (those not in the cavalry call that level of organization a battalion, or a battery in the artillery). i could probably recognize most any of them from their walk alone.
so, it wouldent matter if The Enemy was god's angels complete with halos, i would kill them, or be killed by them, if it meant saving the life of one of my comrades.
oh, and on this side of the pond, we do psych evals and such. if killing gets you off, you dont stay in. that kind of soldier is an atrocity factory, and the army does not need that kind of PR.
in closing, a quote from a movie.
Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.
