COMBAT OUTPOST MONTI, Afghanistan, Oct 9, (AFP): In battle they take out Taleban fighters with joystick-controlled weapons, while back at base American soldiers hook up their Xboxes and kill their way through video games.
In Afghanistan, on and off-duty activities have become strikingly similar for US troops, as 21-year-old Specialist Tyler Sandusky can attest.
Out on missions in the rugged northeastern province of Kunar, Sandusky locates distant targets — day or night — with remarkable clarity on a video screen within a giant armoured truck.
“It’s pretty fun watching people. They’re so far away and they don’t know you’re watching,” he told AFP as he demonstrated a system known as the CROWS (Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station). “It does feel like a game when you’re driving along.”
Perched atop the vehicle is a .50 calibre machine gun with a firing range of more than 6.7 kms (four miles), which Sandusky operates through his screen and a joystick trigger to the right of his seat.
“You see a red mist and then you know they’re down,” he said.
Back at Combat Outpost Monti, troops drew parallels between the CROWS system and one of their favourite pastimes.
“A lot of guys compare it to Call of Duty,” said Sergeant John Henington, referring to the graphic video game franchise set in various battle zones. “We play that game most of the day when we’re not doing anything.”
Aside from weaponry, technology has changed the lives of American soldiers immeasurably since the Vietnam War.
No matter how remote their deployments, troops can watch TV on laptops, shop online and message their loved ones back home through Facebook and Skype.
The changes may make life more comfortable in a war zone, but the evolution of weapons has brought with it ethical concerns.
“It’s the dehumanisation of the enemy,” said Specialist Sean McCabe, 22. “We are the video game generation, so it’s easy with the CROWS system to put it in a video game.”
The similarity is no coincidence, according to Deane-Peter Baker, a philosophy professor at the US Naval Academy.
“Manufacturers of systems like this have deliberately sought to make their operation user-friendly” by designing Xbox and PlayStation-like controls familiar to young soldiers, he said.
CROWS, in place in a number of US army trucks, significantly boosts troops’ safety by removing the need for a gunner poking out of the vehicle.
“Imagine what it must be like to have half of your body sticking out of the top of a Humvee while bullets are flying in every direction,” said Baker.
“Even the coolest head would have difficulty in being as precise and discriminating with his or her fire under those conditions.”
The debate over technological advances is fiercest on the subject of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), whose use the Obama administration has escalated dramatically against Taleban and al-Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan.