Simulating Victory in a Simulated War

The Iraq imbroglio has turned out to be bloody, gruesome and terrifyingly real. The forces which created and guided it, on the other hand, operate with clean hands, far from the violence and horror, in the hazy twilight between reality and simulation.

Seven short months into the war (a war which has supposedly been over for five of those months), and we've already seen everything – the weapons of mass destruction, the star-crossed multicultural marriages, the stage-managed toppling of Saddam's statue and his symbolic, triumphant return, in the form of guerrillas who claim to be avenging both him and an Islam humiliated – while perhaps in reality serving neither.

Even in forgotten Afghanistan – still vexed by "Taliban remnants" and battling warlords – vestigial President Hamid Karzai praises Kabul's new traffic jams as signs of progress, while Vogue magazine helps Afghan women learn "to be beautiful again."

A related symbol of "progress" was (quite literally) paraded in front of us last month, in the form of the alluring Miss Afghanistan – never mind the fact that she's actually a college student from California. Forget about the bunker busters and gunship helicopters – it's the sight of her majestic carriage that will prove lethal for hardened Taliban fighters.

Extracting the Symbolic

Simulation is addictive. The government pours on heavy doses of symbolism whenever a propaganda value can be extracted from real or staged events – while simultaneously guarding against any 'unfortunate' event (i.e., one less in line with the government agenda) acquiring symbolic value. This policy has now led traditional Pentagon protocol to be reversed, by banning journalists from photographing military funeral ceremonies.

We all remember May Day – when the war in Iraq officially ended. Warrior-emperor Bush descended in full regalia onto an aircraft carrier to announce victory, under a tri-colored banner reading "Mission Accomplished." Democrats have been gleefully noting the discrepancy between that statement and Iraq's continuing reality of violence and confusion, 6 months later. Referring to the banner, Senator Tom Daschle opined, "…this latest fabrication is yet another illustration of their (the Republican administration's) unwillingness to except (sic) reality."

Is it possible that a typo could be fated? Taken at his (reported) word, Daschle is clearly incorrect: the Bush Administration has been in the business of "excepting" reality from public discourse since Day One.

Simulation Once Removed

The more tenuous the simulation, the greater becomes the need for reinforcements. Shortly after the stunt on the aircraft carrier, KB Toys – already responsible for the sickening Special Forces fun house – came out with a George Bush action figure. This collector's item (dubbed "George W. Bush, Elite Force Aviator") depicts the president in strapping military garb, looking stoic and regal and determined, just as he did on that portentous day. According to KB,

"…the realism and exacting attention to detail demanded by today's 12-inch action figure enthusiast are met and exceeded with this action figure."

Well that's a relief! At least the action figure (if not its model) can not only meet but also exceed its requirements. A derivative simulation breeds a derivative sense of comfort (in those seeking it), or alienation (in the rest of us).

The statue-toppling affair and the aircraft carrier arrival were both replayed over and over on American television. Could they somehow become more real with each repetition? Actually, they just became more iconic – which amounts to about the same thing in this age of illusion.

Of course, one could just as easily cling to other images on the screen associated with the war, but no patriot likes to watch re-runs of American helicopters crashing. After all, why would they when the movie Black Hawk Down – with its superior cinematography, punchy soundtrack and heavy symbolism, contains a drama so much more easily accessible and digestible? As for the raw footage of real events, that is just too fast, too jumbled and regrettably too real to symbolize anything.

Two Options for Working with Reality

Indeed, no humane person likes to watch soldiers getting maimed or screaming Iraqi civilians being vaporized. The real is suppressed, pushed down. Posterity evades it, and recapturing it becomes a very tough battle.

Two options exist for fighting this battle, however. First, there is the simple reporting of ugly facts (a la Robert Fisk). Second, the devious use of the propagandists' own weapons against them.

For example: could we not petition KB Toys to make a "Limbless Ali" doll? As with Dubya's, this toy would be indisputably part of the Iraq war nostalgia. As with "Elite Force Aviator Bush," it would have to be "…a meticulous 1:6 scale recreation."

But wait – I forgot. Ali's gotten his free artificial limbs. That should shut up the little ingrate.

Symbolic Irony

When it comes to America's creation of jihad spirit in Iraq, the irony is thick – perhaps even thicker than the whipped butter one might find at the National Prayer Breakfasts attended by notables like President Bush and CIA Director George Tenet. Last winter, the latter revealed to the assembled diners his agency's latest strategy in the war on terror:

"…God teaches us to be resolute in the face of evil, using all of the weapons and armor that the word of God supplies."

This soft spot for religious symbolism in an allegedly dualistic struggle – after all, characters like Gen. William Boykin are taken seriously when talking about demons, principalities and powers – may help explain why the government continues to fall under the spell of fairly insipid simulation strategies, like the CIA's interactive anti-terrorism video game.

Simulation's Revenge – Embarrassment

In late September, the CIA announced a very different plan for fighting terror:

"…CIA agents will become make-believe terror chiefs, playing a new video game devised to make them think more like their most wanted enemy, Osama bin Laden, it was revealed yesterday. The CIA's Counter Terrorist Centre (CTC) is developing the computer game which will help agents adopt the mindset of an evil mastermind character, bent on terror and destruction.

With other agents cast as themselves, or law enforcement officials, they will do battle against one another on the multi-million dollar game.

The CIA said the idea was to help its agents "think outside the box."

Well thank God for that! In this wide world there is simply not a box big enough to contain these geniuses. After all, it would take an idiot savant, or a character out of Borges, to painstakingly craft a simulated reality so real that it could almost pass for the real thing. Yet Americans (as the prevalence of fantasy baseball leagues would attest) do have a perverse addiction to the unreal. It's an easy sell.

One of the reasons for creating this game (besides blowing taxpayer money), is that CIA officials feel their agents aren't naturally evil enough. Straitlaced Americans are so moral, they believe, that it will take virtual, video-game experience to make them embrace the diabolical mindset of the terrorist. One wonders if, once settled into the role, the trainees would be able to pull themselves out of it afterwards. Would they return to reality? Or would Osama win new converts, as glassy-eyed as he and as mentally programmed as his unwired, scruffy Afghan acolytes?

More Practical Hypotheticals

Let's think about the practical aspects of the CIA's terrorist Play Station. Would the novice operatives become so engrossed in the game that they might actually mistake it for the real thing? Would they arrange secret, off-line meetings with allies, contacts and informants to help defeat the forces of evil (or good, whichever side they've been given)? Could CIA trainees become so enchanted with fueling and foiling terror in the virtual world that they didn't notice when all hell started breaking loose in the real world outside?

Of course, the most wonderful thing about video games is their creation of an environment in which mistakes have no consequences. In games, intelligence failures don't lead to airplanes crashing into buildings or coalition hotels getting firebombed. US security officials have become, not unreasonably, quite sensitive to criticism these days. They don't like to make mistakes. We're just fortunate that a lack of pressing security concerns in the real world at the moment allows agents the luxury of practicing on-line until they're no longer susceptible to making mistakes.

Big Business Obliges: the Case of Viacom

This amazingly stupid Big Idea was greeted with little comment from the media. Certainly it didn't get anything near the reception that TIA and the terrors future market embarrassment before it did. Perhaps, in this age of simulation, media deception and stage-managed events, everyone has come to accept such endeavors as part of the territory.

Big business, at least, has embraced it. In this, they've clearly taken their cue from the government. Media giant Viacom sucked up to the Bushies with a highly flattering rewrite of the September 11^th attacks in a cable drama entitled, "DC 9/11: Time of Crisis." According to one recent tragicomic report,

"…the production includes the cast of Star Trek, a comedian known for his role as "the ripper," and financial subsidies from Canada where this pro-American patriotic epic was actually made to avoid paying union wages."

The program finally appeared on Showtime on September 7^th. This was no accident: airing such propaganda on the eve of the Second Anniversary helped the Bush Administration to benefit from, while simultaneously feeding the symbolic myth of 9/11. Meanwhile, the same administration is trying its best to keep the reality of that fateful day shrouded in secrecy, and many nagging issues, such as the precise character of Israeli involvement in the event, remain largely ignored.

In addition to KB Toys or Viacom's contributions, there are many more examples of Big Business' hearty entrance into the world of government simulation. A bizarre recent example comes from Boeing. The gargantuan military contractor plans to spend $20 million by next year on a "virtual war simulation center." A customer showroom with pyrotechnics, the center is meant to show the effectiveness of its products in a real wartime setting – a sort of military theme park.

As if anticipating the need for mounting a self-defense, the report highlights the great benefits Boeing's new project will have for the greater St. Louis area: the facility would "employ about 75 when completed, and grow to about 150 employees in three to four years."

The unstated logic here is that anything contributing to job creation, no matter how outrageous, is a good thing. But how will it come off? Will we soon hear someone say with nonchalance, "yeah, I work down at DisneyWar." A military theme park will do the great service of allowing those armchair generals who've had their fill of seeing "real" war on TV to get a chance to see it (sort of) really close up.

Finally, 'Full Spectrum Warrior'

Although the CIA has "no plans" to release its terrorist simulation game commercially, we can have higher hopes for the Army's offering: "Full Spectrum Warrior," an X-Box-based interactive game that simulates urban warfare.

Both simulation games were dreamed up by the Institute for Creative Technologies in Marina Del Ray, California, "…a $45 million endeavor" intended to "…connect academics with local entertainment and video game industries." The ICT perfected "Full Spectrum Warrior" in tandem with Los Angeles-based Pandemic Studios. These producers have the best of both worlds – while their contracts utilize taxpayer dollars, they are crafting their national security training games with an eye to generating "commercial sales:"

"…Pandemic is already busy creating a retail version that will add multiplayer capability, streamline the controls and dispense with such realities as death from a single gunshot wound.

"'The explosions will be bigger. Smoke will develop more quickly. A squad leader could call in an F-16 strike,' said Jim Korris, creative director for the Institute for Creative Technologies. 'That doesn't happen in the real world.'"

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