Six Days in Fallujah Delayed a Year (Gaming)

by Coaxkez, Monday, November 29, 2021, 14:02 (1093 days ago) @ cheapLEY
edited by Coaxkez, Monday, November 29, 2021, 14:08

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF0c9SwewpA

This is the most recent one I’ve seen.

I don’t know what it’s going to turn out to be, but to me, this looks like a pretty human story about the battle itself and the experiences of the Marines who fought there, and dare I say it, a quite apolitical one at that. I don’t see any commentary on the war being made here. I didn’t agree with the Iraq War at the time and still don’t, but that doesn’t invalidate the sacrifices made by the Marines who were there, or the fact that they are real people who just want to do their job and get home in one piece. They’re not responsible for the war. I’d also make the argument that, regardless of the justifiability of the war or the efficacy of our presence in Iraq (and again, I stress, I didn’t agree with the Iraq War at the time and still don’t), we deposed a terrible regime and fought insurgents who would have installed another terrible regime, which isn’t the worst thing in the world. We were not fighting innocent victims.

On top of that, the Battle of Fallujah is a historically significant event, one that hasn’t been given much attention in popular media due to the generally negative public opinion of the war, and to me that is a shame. This battle saw some of the heaviest urban combat the Marines have ever fought, and certainly the most intense conflict in at least half a century. That sort of combat entails a very high human cost, not only death and injury, but psychological trauma as well. There are hundreds of stories within that framework worth telling. Why would you not want to tell them?

People tend to forget that our wars are fought by human beings. We do not have to agree with the wars to sympathize with the soldiers who were sent there to fight for us. It is entirely within reason to sympathize with them, as well as with the citizens in Fallujah (some of whom were interviewed for this project), and to make a game that attempts to chronicle their experiences. Again, your personal opinion of the war does not invalidate their sacrifice, and I don’t agree with the implied notion that any story about the Iraq War is negligent if it does not portray “our” side overtly as an interloper. Not every war story has to be political.