Afghan war video game stirs anger

UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox is urging retailers not to stock the video game "Medal of Honor," which permits players to assume the positions of Taliban insurgents attacking NATO forces in Afghanistan. "At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands," Fox said. "I am disgusted and angry. It’s hard to believe any citizen of our country would wish to buy such a thoroughly un-British game." EA, the game’s creator, says it merely reflects that "every conflict has two sides." But this is enough of a departure from standard computerized games—which typically use made-up settings in unidentified countries—that it has the attention of the Muslim and Arab world. Al Jazeera has been running a video report showing in-game footage of a Taliban soldier using a cellphone to detonate a bomb.

The Guardian