The gamification of war

(Zachary Basu – Axios) The U.S. government is treating strikes on Iran like a video game, inviting the country to watch as memes and montages subsume the human cost of war. The Trump administration didn’t invent the gamification of war, nor did it invent wartime propaganda — a tool of statecraft as old as armed conflict itself. But packaging live combat as social media content — scoring real kills in real time, and broadcasting it to an audience of millions — is a first in the history of American warfare. Two weeks into Operation Epic Fury, much of the White House’s online messaging has been gleefully trollish — a stream of videos splicing real missile strikes with footage from Call of Duty, Wii Sports and Hollywood blockbusters. – How America gamified its war with Iran