Let’s break this down for simplicity. I have talked about the culture in the Army before. Our culture has heavily stressed the warrior ethos. We even create additional tags to go on the soldier’s dog tag chains with the warrior ethos printed on it, as a talisman of our culture. Elitism is bred in. Everyone wants to be elite. Pride is part of professionalism. Physical prowess and tactical proficiency are key to the pride. Excellent players of strategy and tactical games have succeeded.
We even produced our own video game, “America’s Army.” It is a tactical shoot ‘em up. Warriors tend to enjoy first-person shooters or classic games such as the “Close Combat” series of games. Hey, I’ve never in my life played “Dungeons and Dragons,” either. I’m really good at “Steel Beasts,” and I’ve kicked a lot of ass on “M1 Tank Platoon II.”
COIN is much more like “Dungeons and Dragons” or “World of Warcraft.” There is the first-person shooter aspect to COIN, but Verne Troyer’s Mage character is likely to be more successful at engaging the local village leadership than any “Tom Clancy’s End War” shooter.
“Launch kinetic strike!” is more our style than any circle-talking, wand-waving gnome in a pointy hat type stuff. It’s also something we cannot do so much. Kinetic strikes are what got the Soviets to be so universally hated in Afghanistan.
That and godless communism, of course.
Getting an avid player of “Medal of Honor” to play “Dungeons and Dragons” is not easy, and the participant’s enthusiasm level is likely to be low. Instead of knowing that he can lob a grenade or launch a missile into a particular target and achieve the desired result, he may have to cast a “Good Governance” spell combined with an “Information Operation” incantation backed with his multiplier card to move to the next level. Is it any wonder that our level of execution with COIN has been spotty?
