Harper Valley

Raised on Gameboy, X-Box and the countless video games offered at arcade shops, airports, and on the computer, today's soldier has twitching thumbs ready to grab the joystick and push the button that annihaltes the enemy. Add a strong dose of fear, drugs and steroids and it's no wonder numbed-out kids are pushing the buttons at anything they see. Put them in a jet high above the reality of human contact and trigger happy takes on a whole new dimension.

It doesn't matter what you're seeing on your screen, hit the button 'cause life only means you and not the images down below. How many kids picked off 'just anything' on their game boxes in a second of boredom before 'the bad guy' reappeared? Now these same kids are given uniforms, taught the technology of war and put into 'the real thing'. With names like 'Tides of War', 'Invisible War', 'Prisoner of War' and 'Wings of War' dominating the X-Box mind, brainwashing's taken on a whole new dimension since yesteryear's t.v. shows like Hogan's Heroes and the countless black and white World War Two documentaries I was forced to watch as a kid so my dad was satisfied we would work towards something like that never happening again.

Somehow that transpired into Clockwork Agent-Orange.

Afghanistan and Iraq are non-conscription. The average North American troop still joins as a means out of poverty. But recruiters hit high schools and colleges now as they want a more 'educated soldier' capable of operating and maintaining the computerized gear. In WW2 recruiters were more apt to hit the pool halls and bars before the draft came into effect.

The troops and their families who were stationed at radioactive sites after experiments with glowing bombs came into being are all but dead and it's not a pretty way of going. I know, I worked on a couple who, after Korea, were stationed at one. I thought they were in their 80's and dementia had set in. WRONG! They were in their 60's and feeling the final affects of their long agony. Now we have kids not only exposed on a daily basis to radiation but the chemicals and germs of warfare...read 'Bosnia'.

In my travels through the States over the last few years I've had the opportunity to talk with youth dressed in their fatigues, ready to leave for their first tour of duty. Not one wasn't scared. I've talked with some who had been over and never wanted to go back but were tied into doing so. Meantime I was camped out on the beautiful shores of the Big Island of Hawaii, sharing the grounds with Vietnam Vets. These men still carried the effects of war...paranoia, night terrors, the shakes. They all packed guns. Too many times I had to break up fights, fearful that someone would reach for their magnum.

So what's it going to be now? Almost every kid in my day played 'army', be it with sticks, acorns, pots and pans for helmuts before Gameboy and Paintball. At least Paintball gives a stinging dose of reality, and those acorns hurt if winged really hard. Sitting in front of a monitor with only the chance of 'loosing' the game is not exactly feeling pain. I've had my hand at playing these games to see what they're like....exciting, incredible visuals and sound effects. And you bet I'd get trigger happy.

Now the X-Box men sitting in the White House and Parliament dream up new games to sell to the kids. Glory, glory, glory, bloody gory glory. 'Iraq, a chance to save your country and put your joysticks to the test'. 'Afghanistan; outsmart the Taliban with you at the controls!'. It seems The Hawk's idea of destiny has been packaged under new graphics and cellophane. And to think the world was once aghast because 'The Terrorists' were ordering Gameboys by the thousands to use the computer chips in missiles. All the while we should have been recalling the bloody things for the propoganda chips they were placing in children's minds.

No wonder the level of 'friendly fire' is what it is. After all, it's only a game, right?