Virtual War Crimes!

Well this was unexpected... At the 31st meeting of the International Commitee of the Red Cross (ICRC) guess what they talked about, VIDEO GAMES! Violent video games, to be exact that might be breaking the laws from the Geneva convention.

If in war, there are some things that aren't acceptable, why put those in a video game? It's putting a false image of war in the public eye, but what's new about that one eh? Honestly in war they don't disrespect the International Humanitarian Law (IHL)! Why do the video game companies like Activision Inc. whom created Modern Warfare 3 have the urge to add worldwide illegal activities in games!? The ICRC has even made a video where they were comparing the points athletes would get in a sports game, the kills you would get in MW3 (I want to post it, but it seems it's been moved or deleted :( ). 

• One goal in hockey equals one point.
• A slam dunk in basket ball is two points.
• One touchdown in football is 6.
• One head shot in MW3 is 100 points.
• Land mine kill 250 points.
• A tank kill 150 points.
• An ambulance, 0 points, its just for fun. (ICRC)

 In the games you can destroy ambulances!, This IS against the Geneva convention and sending a message "Oh yeah come and kill whatever you want it's a blast!". The reason that killing ambulances and Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (M*A*S*H) is against humanitarian law, is because they're trying to save human beings from dying.

When I hear of dumb soldiers in the war today, I always think, "Did they learn that from a video game?". A couple of years back there was an accident in the Middle East. A native war photographer was taking picture behind a building and taking pictures of the Apachy helicopter. The pilots mistook the camera for a RPG, they shot the man down. Once the Jeep arrived on scene, it literally ran OVER a body, and the pilots laughed... this was all capture on the flight video and was uploaded on the internet without permission (Again the video seems to have disappeared, but I saw it 2 years ago).

The way war has been evolving and the younger generation taking over as the soldiers, the ones who grew up with these video games. They start to think of that life as a game since they're in the army of a technological superpower, there are so little casualties that they don't realize what is actually happening. I hope that the IRCR makes the IHL apply to video games because younger people will only know those as war when in real life they would be committing humanitarian CRIMES!

"International Committee of the Red Cross." International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://www.icrc.org/eng/index.jsp>

"The Escapist : News : Red Cross Investigating Virtual War Crimes." The Escapist. N.p., 2 Dec. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114515-Red-Cross-Investigating-Virtual-War-Crimes>.