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"Six Days in Fallujah": Iraq's Bloodiest Battle Will Be a Video Game

2021-10-11T05:43:16.376Z


"Six Days in Fallujah" is an Arab murder simulator, critics say. The developers argue that it teaches history.


(CNN) -

Najla Bassim Abdulelah grew up in a war.

The regular sight of corpses and the memory of her friend being murdered alongside her as they walked to school tainted her childhood.

Children's laughter was replaced by a relentless soundtrack of exploding bombs, and he lived in overwhelming fear of losing his family.

So when Abdulelah, who now lives in Atlanta, Georgia, heard that "Six Days in Fallujah," a first-person shooter video game set during the bloodiest battle of the Iraq war, was about to be released, he was horrified. .

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"I am disgusted that this is something that will pay off when people like me suffered the consequences of this war and will have to watch people play for fun," Abdulelah, 28, told CNN.

"I just can't get over inhumanity."

For Abdulelah and other survivors of the Iraq war, the impending release of "Six Days in Fallujah" threatens to reopen old wounds and trivialize their pain.

They want the game archived.

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But the game's creators say it is grossly misunderstood and that they are simply using the gameplay - the way players interact with a video game - to teach history.

"A mass slaughter of Arabs"

Part documentary and part video game, "Six Days in Fallujah" uses the game to tell the story and recreate true stories from the Second Battle of Fallujah.

The offensive, codenamed Operation Phantom Fury, saw US Marines lead a joint force of US, British and Iraqi troops into the ancient city.

The battle lasted from November 7 to December 23, 2004 and, according to the US military, is widely regarded as the toughest US urban battle since Huế, Vietnam, when fierce fighting between troops Americans and North Vietnamese soldiers resulted in the deaths of hundreds - if not thousands - of citizens, who were buried in unidentified mass graves by Communist forces.

In Fallujah, US-led forces went house to house in search of suspected insurgents.

Fighters on both sides, as well as thousands of innocent Iraqis caught in the crossfire, did their best to avoid snipers and booby traps.

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"We were told as we entered Fallujah, in the combat area, that every person who walked, spoke, breathed was an enemy combatant. As such, every person who walked down the street or into a house was a target," said Jeff Englehart. , a former US soldier in the 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, in the 2005 documentary "Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre."

The US-led forces used more than 300 bombs, 6,000 artillery rounds and 29,000 mortar rounds, according to the US Marines.

Military officials also confirmed that the troops used white phosphorus, a highly controversial incendiary weapon that burns the skin.

Ross Caputi, a former US Marine with the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, recalls some of the controversial tactics used during battle, such as firing grenades or rounds of ammunition at houses before entering, in case of the insurgents hiding inside.

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"These tactics were meant to keep us safe. But I later learned that tens of thousands of civilians were still hiding in their homes during the operation, so these tactics would have put them in great danger," Caputi told CNN.

"The hardships Phantom Fury imposed on the people of Fallujah and the destruction it caused made me really ashamed of what we were doing."

In the end, more than 80 American soldiers were killed, CNN reported.

The number of civilian casualties is unknown, but at least 800 innocent Iraqis died, according to the Red Cross.

Local NGOs estimate the battle killed 6,000 Iraqis, mostly civilians, The Guardian reported.

Describing the aftermath, Englehart said: "It looked like a mass slaughter of Arabs. It looked like a mass slaughter."

A "new way of understanding" history

"Six Days in Fallujah" was originally developed by Atomic Games and released by Japanese game publisher Konami in 2010. But the Tokyo-based company withdrew from the project a year earlier due to widespread criticism that it was offensive.

Atomic Games closed and the project was shelved.

In February 2021, developer Highwire Games and publisher Victura, founded by former Atomic Games CEO Peter Tamte, announced that they were resurrecting "Six Days in Fallujah."

The game is scheduled to be released in late 2021.

"It's hard to understand what combat is really like through fake people doing fake things in fake places," Tamte said in a statement announcing the game's launch.

"This generation showed sacrifice and courage in Iraq as extraordinary as any in history. And now they offer the rest of us a new way of understanding one of the most important events of our century. It is time to challenge stereotypes about what that games can be. "

A scene from "Six Days in Fallujah".

The developers say they collaborated with more than 100 service members to recreate real events.

To that end, the developers say they collaborated with more than 100 service members who provided testimonials, photos and videos to recreate actual events "with authenticity and respect."

They also interviewed 27 Iraqis, 23 of whom are from Fallujah.

In the game, a player can choose to be an American military man leading a team on missions against insurgents or an unarmed Iraqi father trying to escape with his family to safety.

As they play, players will hear real US service members narrating the missions and Iraqi civilians sharing their experiences.

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"Players will meet civilians during the game, and these people will also speak directly to players through video interviews," Tamte told CNN.

"We want players to get to know these people as real human beings, rather than just avatars on a computer screen. And we want players to hear the perspectives and stories of these Iraqis in their own words."

The developers regularly consult Iraqis about how they are depicted in the game, says Tamte.

If a player shoots an Iraqi civilian, the mission fails.

The only Iraqis who can be killed are the insurgents.

"An Arab assassination simulator"

Abdulelah understands the premise of "Six Days in Fallujah" and Victura's rationale for launching the game.

She is a gamer herself.

But she says that taking a real-life event, in which people suffered and died, and turning it into a game trivializes the experience.

There are more respectful and credible ways to learn about what happened in Fallujah, he says, pointing to news, books and documentaries produced about the battle.

"It gave me chills to think of the idea that they can use the scenario of someone escaping something so tragic for a game," Abdulelah said, referring to the scenario in which a player can choose to be an Iraqi father fleeing with his family.

"It makes me cry. How is this okay?"

Mohammed Husain, also an Iraqi-American, says he was "hurt and disturbed" by the news that the game will be released.

He worries that the game diminishes the importance of battle, especially among young players.

"Instead of a historical incident, now they will see it as a game," Husain, 26, told CNN.

Husain, whose parents are refugees from the Iraq war, is also concerned that the insurgents in the game look like typical Iraqi men, which he said could lead to prejudice in the real world.

Screenshots from the game show some insurgents distinguished by a black and white headdress, which is a common outfit in Iraq and other Arab countries.

"It dehumanizes the Iraqi people, showing how some are insurgents, some are Al-Qaeda, some are civilians, with no way of differentiating them. It desensitizes this generation to this type of violence against our people," he said.

A scene from "Six Days in Six Days in Fallujah" shows a US serviceman pointing his gun at an Iraqi dressed in traditional costume.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the country's largest Muslim advocacy and civil rights organization, fears that gambling could reinforce harmful stereotypes of Iraqis, as well as other Arabs and Muslims. .

CAIR and Veterans for Peace (VFP) called again on Friday to archive "Six Days in Fallujah."

In August, they issued a public letter denouncing it as a game that "glorifies the violence that claimed the lives of more than 800 Iraqi civilians, justifies the illegal invasion of Iraq and reinforces Islamophobic narratives."

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In April, the two organizations partnered to launch a petition asking video game companies, including Microsoft Corporation (Xbox), Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation), and Valve Corporation, not to host or digitally distribute the game.

Garett Reppenhagen, executive director of VFP, is a former US Army sniper who served in the Sunni Triangle during the Second Battle of Fallujah.

"As a combat veteran and gamer, I am concerned to see what amounts to an Arab assassination simulator, which does not recognize the impact of siege warfare against an unarmed and trapped civilian population," Reppenhagen told CNN.

When asked about the criticism of "Six Days in Fallujah" and the petition, a Microsoft spokesperson told CNN: "We are aware of the concerns and are investigating the content."

Neither Sony nor Valve responded to CNN's request for comment.

"How would you feel?"

Victura stands firm in its decision to publish "Six Days in Fallujah".

He insists that the game provides an exciting new way for people to find out what happened.

"When we originally announced Six Days in Fallujah in 2009, we learned that some people believe that video games should not address real life events. For these people, video games seem more like toys than a medium capable of communicating something enlightening. We are not okay, "the manufacturers said in a statement in February.

"Video games can connect us in ways that other media cannot."

Iraqi-American Najla Bassim Abdulelah says "Six Days in Fallujah" is offensive to survivors of the Iraq war.

Critics also want people to learn about the tragedy that unfolded in Fallujah.

But they say turning it into a first-person shooter video game played for entertainment purposes is insensitive and disrespectful, especially when many Iraqis are still reeling from destruction.

"Six Days in Fallujah" is a "disgrace" for the video game industry, says Abdulelah.

The trauma of Iraqis like her, she says, must not "become a look and repeat."

"It is not about honoring the innocents who died. It is very disrespectful of their memory. Not to mention that it is a very recent story. People are still living and digesting the trauma they acquired in the Iraq war," he said.

"My family and I witnessed horrible and mortifying things ... it is not a memory that we want to sit down, revisit or talk about."

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Fallujah hospitals have reported spikes in birth defects and cancer cases since 2005, according to a 2010 study in which some medical experts suggested that the use of depleted uranium could be the culprit.

Many Iraqis who lived through the war also suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and have not yet received any kind of mental health care, according to the researchers.

A 2014 study in Baghdad showed that more than 80% of participants reported experiencing at least one traumatic event that led to PTSD and other mental health problems.

Husain, who avoids documentaries about the war due to post-traumatic stress disorder from his annual trips to Iraq, including one in which he says he nearly died in a car explosion, says archiving the game "shouldn't be a debate." .

When asked if he had a message for Highwire Games and Victura, Husain asked a question of his own:

"Haven't you lost your loved ones?"

I ask.

"How would you feel if you were on the receiving end? If you watched a video game about a tragedy that affected your family, your people? How would you feel?"

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Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-10-11

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