The Real Video Game War

In the capital cities of the industrialized West, authorities consider stencil art to be a crime against private property, a form of “visual pollution” created by delinquent “gangs” and “hoodlums”. Spray painting stencil art on city streets is an illegal underground art practice that can land you in jail… unless of course you are a stencil artist for the US Army in occupied Iraq. While conducting raids on Iraqi homes and businesses in its search for guerillas and their sympathizers, the US Army 1st Battalion -24th Infantry, has been leaving behind a macabre calling card stenciled on walls of raided property. The Battalion’s emblem is the fearsome skull logo from the ultra-violent comic/video game/movie series, The Punisher. While the comic book origin of the bloodcurdling icon is lost on Iraqis, the intent of the spray painted stencil is clear -it announces to Iraqis that their country is under firm US military control. But the terrifying image also sends a more obvious message -one that directly equates the occupation forces with death. Not exactly the way to win hearts and minds. While volunteer clean-up crews regularly paint over stencil art found in western cities… no Iraqi in their right mind would dare paint over a death’s head stencil left behind by the US Army. Starting in 1993, Marvel Comics began publishing The Punisher, an aggressively brutal comic book about vigilante anti-hero Frank Castle. After his wife and family are killed, Castle becomes a lawless one man army out to cleanse America of crime by acting as judge, jury and executioner. The comic spawned two blood-splattered live action movies and a gruesome video game that allows you to play the vigilante as you “interrogate and kill criminals using their own ruthless methods.” How distressing that a homicidal maniac comic book character should become an icon for America’s troops… how telling that young men raised on gore drenched video games are so easily transformed into front line soldiers.