Call of Duty’s publisher Infinity Ward previously claimed that the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game would not be political. While it is quite a claim that any game that delves into the morality of war can be apolitical, certain details in the game itself call Infinity Ward’s promise into question. Specifically, the game portrayed a real historical war crime in-game, but attributed it to Russian troops, minimizing America’s involvement.

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Highway Of Death And US War Crime

The event in question is the infamous 1991 Highway of Death. In real life, it took place during the Persian Gulf War when American, Canadian, British, and French forces joined an American-led attack on a convoy of mostly Iraqi Regular Army troops, bombarding the vehicle column with cluster bombs.

The bombings drew criticism for violating the Third Geneva Convention, which forbids killing soldiers who are out of combat. It was also criticized for causing the deaths of civilian refugees who were also present. Former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark even included it in his 1991 report to the International War Crimes Tribunal.

In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, one of the missions, which is also called Highway of Death, takes place on one of the highways where the bombings took place. It even mentions the bombings of retreating soldiers. However, it attributes the war crime to Russians instead of Americans.

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Why Include The Event At All?

It is worth noting that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is ostensibly an alternate history game. It takes place in an alternate universe in a fictional country, which begs the question: why not make up an event instead? If this is an alternate history game, it seems counter-productive to use a real war crime, especially one so controversial. If the game is meant to be grounded in reality, it seems odd to blame a war crime on another country, absolving the United States of its actions abroad.

While the plot of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare does have the American protagonists crossing the lines of morality and questioning whether their actions in war are justified, there is a clear difference between fictional characters implying that war is bad and a video game placing the blame of an “alternate universe” version of a real war crime on another country.

At best, Modern Warfare changes important historical facts in order to create a “scary Russians” doctrine in order to label them as the villains of the game. At worst, the game preaches American propaganda and attempts to blatantly absolve the United States of past war crimes.

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