The War is not a Game

Gold Star Families Speak Out Expresses Outrage
at Video Game Based on Deadly Battle in Iraq

Nationwide -- Members of Gold Star Families Speaks Out (GSFSO), family members of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, are expressing outrage at two companies that plan to release a video game that graphically recreates one of the Iraq war's bloodiest battles.

Atomic Games and Konami plan to release "Six Days in Fallujah" next year. The game is based on videos, photographs, and diary entries from veterans of a battle that claimed the lives of 38 U.S. troops and an estimated 1,500 Iraqis between November 7 and December 23, 2004. Discussing the game, Atomic Games President, Peter Tamte recently told a reporter that “For us, the challenge was how to present the horrors of war in a game that is entertaining, but also gives people insight into a historical situation in a way that only a video game can provide”

In a statement released Wednesday, Gold Star Families Speak Out said:

"Gold Star families continue to live with the horrors of war every day as we mourn the loss of our loved ones. We question how anyone can trivialize a war that continues to kill and maim members of the military and Iraqi civilians to this day.

"The war is not a game and neither was the Battle of Fallujah. For Konami and Atomic Games to minimize the reality of an ongoing war and at the same time profit off the deaths of people close to us by making it 'entertaining' is despicable."

"Just as Sony abandoned plans to launch a video game called Shock & Awe in 2003, Konami Atomic games should cancel their plans to release 'Six Days in Fallujah' before they instill more thoughtless pain on anyone"

GSFSO member Joanna Polisena, sister of Army Staff Sergeant Edward Carman, Killed in Action in Iraq on April 17, 2004 added “When our loved one's 'health meter' dropped to '0', they didn't get to 'retry' the mission. When they took a bullet, they didn't just get to pick up a health pack and keep 'playing'...they suffered, they cried, they died. We - their parents, siblings, spouses, children and friends - absolutely find it disgusting and repulsive that those so far detached (and clinging to denial of reality) find it so easy to poke fun at such a thing.”

Joan Maymi, whose nephew, Captain Ernesto Manuel Blanco-Caldas, was Killed in Action in Iraq on December 28, 2003 said, “Unless you have suffered the death of loved one like we have, or are caring for the ones who have returned wounded, either physically or psychologically, our country has removed the immediacy of this war from their daily lives. To trivialize it in a video game and continue to desensitize our society from the scope of violence war entails goes beyond words."

Members of Gold Star Families Speak Out are available for interview.

Gold Star Families Speak Out, a national chapter of Military Families Speak Out, includes families whose loved ones have died as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military Families Speak Out is an organization of people opposed to the war in Iraq who have relatives or loved ones who are currently in the military or who have served in the military since the buildup to the Iraq war in the fall of 2002. Formed by two families in November of 2002, MFSO now has over 4,000 member families.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/04/08-16

3900 Dead US Soldiers

On January 1st, 2007 we marked the 3000th dead US soldier in Iraq. Nearly one year later, we mark the death of the 3900th dead US soldiers. 900 young men and women never coming home, 900 families torn apart, turned upside down in 2007.

Did you hear this sad statistic on your local news? Unlikely. The AP published a very short story, Forbes picked it up. Not one of the network news affiliates in the San Francisco Bay area covered the story on their websites, not yahoo.com, not cnn.com. Nothing, nada, zip and zero.

We did hear about the first families holiday celebration at Camp David; the president gave his wife a silver tray and purse and she gave him a new coat and warming soles for cold weather mountain biking. Sweet, huh? We surely heard about the presidential campaign and we heard that Bush signed the $555 billion spending bill, but we didn't hear about the dead soldiers.

Unfortunately, since it was recently announced that the troop surge in Iraq was working, I fear some people decided that meant the occupation in Iraq was a success and meant that victory was upon us! Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition! Juan Cole over at Informed Comment wrote about the success of the surge as being one of the Top 10 Myths about Iraq 2007 . He explains it is a myth to believe-

The reduction in violence in Iraq is mostly because of the escalation in the number of US troops, or "surge." Fact: Although violence has been reduced in Iraq, much of the reduction did not take place because of US troop activity. Guerrilla attacks in al-Anbar Province were reduced from 400 a week to 100 a week between July, 2006 and July, 2007. But there was no significant US troop escalation in al-Anbar. Likewise, attacks on British troops in Basra have declined precipitously since they were moved out to the airport away from population centers. But this change had nothing to do with US troops. About 600 civilians are being killed in direct political violence per month, but that number excludes deaths of soldiers and police. Across the board, Iraqis believe that their conflicts are mainly caused by the US military presence and they are eager for it to end.

While I am happy that there seems to be less violence in Iraq, 2007 was the deadliest year of this nearly 5 year war. Our troops are still dying. The occupation of Iraq is not over. Whoever gets elected to be our 44th President will become the Decider on when we bring our troops home. Listen to the candidates and listen very carefully while the choice is in your hands.

My condolences to the newest Gold Star families who join a group who needs nor wants new members. Gold Star families, those who have lost a loved one in war, don't care if the number is one or 3900. We know the hole in our hearts that will never heal and we know that any number more than zero is too many for the illegal invasion of Iraq. Special condolences to my fellow members of Gold Star Families Speak Out, who suffer as each additional flag covered coffin returns home for the last time. Whether it has been a day, a month or 4 years, we remember the exact moment we heard the knock on the door; the day our lives changed forever.

Members of GSFSO have been on this journey of bereavement for all too long, and they are the ones I turn to to get me through the days of living without my only child, Lt Ken Ballard. Ken was casualty #818 and was KIA on 5.30.2004. My Gold Star family friends know exactly what losing a loved one in this war means and we are doing what we can to end this endless war and to bring the troops home now!