I have seen the future of warfare, and it is in my age bracket

The future of the United states military is sitting in a chair right now, eating cheetos and playing on the computer. I've known this to be true for about 5 years now. The Army and the Air-force know it too.

The most recent attack on an al-queda base, which killed 4 of their top commanders, was carried out by an unmanned aerial vehicle. The United States Army, has released a FPS, creatively named "Americas army", as a recruitment device, to the general public.

"Americas Army" is no mere recruitment tool however. It, and games like it, have taught gamers to think tactically, to lay down suppresing fire before advancing, to always check doors when moving down hallways, to recognize good/bad/blown cover, to aim for the center of mass, etc.

Pssh. Sync, it can't possibly be that good a trainer. After all, they don't have backpacks on, and there is a huge difference between clicking a 1 button mouse which rests on a table, in an air conditioned room, and firing something which you must support, and which recoils, in 90 degree temperatures. I accept all these points as True (although recoil is factored into most games as far as the target sight moving upward). But it is a method of training for the real deal, which scares the shit out of various anti-videogame groups.

My first day at work for EA tech support was illustrative of what I'm talking about. Lunchtime comes, and I start in on my sammich. I was in the minority, most people were starting up counterstrike. My que was playing a match against another que, and other groups were paired off as well. I watched the precision at which my que laid down support fire as they advanced on an objective (defusing a bomb). They were good at this shit. And they got owned by the other team, which must have been playing that much better. They understood tactics to a level that most civilians in history have never known. And, should the shit hit the fan in a conscription level way, they will need less time training for tactics, and less time learning how to operate the modern gizmos of battle. Probably a good bit more time in physical training though.

As for myself, I have always been a fan of combat flight simulators. Hand me the keys to a virtual f-22, f-15, an a10, or even the Myrmidon space superiority fighter, and I'm good to go. I have read probably about 300 pages worth of flight manuals in my life, and while I know I would black out like a little school girl taking 3g turns in meatspace, in front of a computer, with a joystick, and a keyboard, I'm well in my element. Most flight simulators are not what you would think of as a video "game" either. I wasn't lying about the giant manuals, and to properly play the more realistic ones, you need all the buttons on your joystick, as well as all 101 keys on your keyboard. I know how to pull an Immelman, and I know how to take angles in a dogfight. The fact that I know this without ever actually having flown a plane illustrates, again, that there is a large segment of American society that, if given a terminal, a joystick, an instrument panel or keyboard, and an UAV to control via some form of Satellite data transfer, would be well suited to the task at hand.

Now, I will leave it up to others to ring hands over how this will sanitize warfare (which it will), making it so we never see the bloody effects of our actions. I don't think it matters though, because in all of history, that hasn't bothered many politicians.