Forget it Marge, it's Chinatown

Continuing with the video game theme (and echoing Ryan's assessment that technology is becoming advanced at the same rate it's becoming pointless), today's post honours Randall Glass' version of A Few Good Men, rendered using the Half-Life game engine.

A Few Good G-Men



Tonight's Ideas on CBC Radio 1 was on the use of wargames, and a phenomenon called asymmeteric warfare. This occurs when a person's reason for fighting does not comply with one of the identifiable parties, or when the means of warfare are outside conventional tactics. A farmer in Iraq, for example, might have his daughter killed by a brightly coloured smart bomb. In anger and grief he might take a sniper rifle and begin shooting at any soldiers in the region. Traditional wargames did not account for this type of player. The most "famous" type of assymetric warfare is the suicide bomber.

If this interests you at all, I suggest reading the following article (PDF download) on the topic. It will open your eyes as to why the war in Iraq continues to march on.

Bailey, Kathleen C. Iraq's Asymmetric Threat to the United States and U.S. Allies. Fairfax, VA, National Institute for Public Policy, December 2001.

posted by Thomas @ 22:24