Summerfest, Army recruiters try to put a smiley face on war

Apparently not content to be just the world's biggest music festival, officials at Summerfest are hosting a military recruiting exhibit called Virtual Army Experience, an incredibly violent interactive “game” in which participants shoot at people displayed on a life-size computer screen while standing on a real Humvee equipped with machine guns.

If Virtual Army Experience was a game sold in stores, it would almost certainly get a mature rating. As it happens, you only have to be 13-years old to get a chance to play the Army’s version of Grand Theft Auto-Baghdad at Summerfest this year.

I have not been on the game myself, but if you have any doubts as to the disturbing, ultra violent nature of the experience, you can get a taste of it here at a special Army Web site. Wait for the movie to load that intersperses the phrase “Defend Freedom” with highly stylized animation of explosions and automatic weapons randomly spraying bullets at people.

I can’t imagine what the management of Summerfest was thinking in allowing this horror show of death and violence onto the grounds, or how it would help their image as a family-friendly event to let anyone set up something in such obvious poor taste.

The fact that participants are invited to stand aboard a Humvee while playing the game is particularly galling. Scores of US soldiers in Iraq have died riding on Humvees that critics have derided as poorly designed and ill equipped. Among them is Cedarburg native Stephen Castner, whose family, aided by US. Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, has been searching for conclusive answers about how he died since 2006.

As Journal Sentinel writer Mike Nichols points out in this column, many concerns have been raised about the safety of Humvees. I doubt the Virtual Army Experience game includes any scenarios where players get to experience the sudden loss of a limb or the death of their fellow soldiers.

I also doubt the exhibit includes any experiences of the many civilian casualties in Iraq or the fact that invading armies tend to end up killing lots of children who get swept up in the fighting.

Milwaukee is a city struggling with violent crime, yet as Peace Action Wisconsin is pointing out, Summerfest and the US Army are collaborating on an exhibit that encourages visitors to the event to practice shooting people. The organization is encouraging complaint calls to the Summerfest switchboard at 414-273-2690. Points to make including noting that war is not a game, and that Summerfest shouldn’t be hosting war games as part of its exhibits this year.

Summerfest officials probably won’t want to admit they’ve done anything wrong, but they should do the right thing and shut this exhibit down now.

Update: Bill Christofferson reports that Summerfest apparently gave in—a little.

Update 2: Summerfest sees the light.