《现代战争》,死亡公路和使命召唤对历史的再创作

'Modern Warfare,' The Highway of Death, and Call of Duty's Exploitation of the Past

Like the United States itself, 'Modern Warfare' can't tell its wars apart and doesn't bother trying.

By Matthew Gaul

《现代战争》,死亡公路和使命召唤对历史的再创作

就像美国一样，《现代战争》没有认清战争，也没有尝试过。

By Matthew Gault

IMAGE COURTESY OF ACTIVISION

On February 26, 1991, just two days before the end of the First Gulf War, thousands of Iraqi soldiers fled Kuwait along Highway 80. A coalition of Western forces led by the United States dropped cluster bombs on the head and tail of the retreating column. Then it began to bomb the convoy. The soldiers who survived, many of them conscripts, walked home in a driving rain. Smoke from the Kuwait oil fields set fire by Saddam Hussein’s forces mingled with storm clouds and black rain fell on the soldiers as they shambled home defeated. President George H.W. Bush declared victory and an end to hostilities two days later.

1991年2月26日，就在第一次海湾战争结束的两天前，上千名伊拉克士兵沿着80号公路撤离科威特。美国领导的联盟军向撤离中的伊军车队首尾两端投下集束炸弹。随后开始对整支车队进行狂轰滥炸。幸存下来的士兵大多是受征召入伍，暴雨中他们走向家乡。萨达姆（Saddam Hussein）的军队点燃了科威特的油田，滚滚黑烟混着乌云在空中翻腾，黑雨淋在战败士兵的身上，他们蹒跚着向家走去。两天后，布什（George H.W. Bush）宣告战争胜利，作战结束。

Midway through the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, I sat nestled in a sniper’s nest overlooking the Highway of Death. In Modern Warfare, this is not the road between Kuwait and Iraq but a highway leading from a city into the mountains of the fictional country of Urzikstan. Viewed through the scope of my rifle, Call of Duty’s Highway of Death—with its burnt out cars, gray dust, and cracked road—looks exactly like photographs of Iraq’s Highway of Death.

新版《使命召唤：现代战争》有一段剧情，我在死亡公路附近的高地进行狙击。《现代战争》里的这条公路，在虚构国家乌兹克斯坦境内，从一座城市通往深山，而不是连通科威特和伊拉克。打开瞄准镜，这是《使命召唤》的死亡公路——焚毁的汽车残骸，灰蒙蒙的沙尘，破损的路基——看起来和照片上伊拉克那条死亡公路没有两样。

THE ACTUAL "HIGHWAY OF DEATH." PHOTO COURTESY OF U.S. AIR FORCE.

We’re told in a cutscene that, during its invasion of this fictional country, Russia bombed the highway killing people trying to escape. Just like that, in a piece of popular fiction, American atrocities become Russian atrocities. It’s the kind of distance players need to separate themselves from history, to watch the road uncritically through a scope, and place bullets downrange so that their enemies head’s satisfyingly explode. It’s a fun mission.

过场动画介绍说，在俄罗斯侵略乌兹克斯坦期间，俄军轰炸了这条高速公路，杀害了那些逃亡的人。就这样不加解释，流行游戏的剧情里美国的暴行变成了俄罗斯的所作所为。玩家将自己和真实历史相剥离所产生的隔阂感让玩家不顾对错地向视野里公路上的敌人倾泻子弹，打爆这些靶子的头。确实是一个很爽快的关卡。

In his assessment of Call of Duty, my colleague Emanuel Maiberg said Urzikstan is “so blatantly based on Syria that it’s cowardly to call it anything else.” I think it’s more complicated. In the minds of most Americans, the Forever War exists in a nebulous country Over There. We’re fighting in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and North Africa. But all these places are treated as interchangeable.

对于这款游戏，我的同事Emanuel Maiberg是这样说乌兹克斯坦的:“明显就是以叙利亚为原型虚构出来的，还改个名字真是有够怂。”我觉得事情愈加复杂了。在大多数美国人心中，总有战争在某个和自己无关的国度里持续进行着。我们在阿富汗打仗，在中东打仗，在北非打仗。但所有这些战场在我们心中好像都是可以随意替代的一样。

In the popular imagination, the mountains of the Korengal Valley are next to the Tigris and Euphratesrivers, across the street from the tank graveyards of Syria, downriver from the poppy fields of Kabul, and a just a quick drive down the Cairo–Dakar Highway. The popular and political imagination can no longer tell them apart—hell, it never could—and popular art is not attempting to make a distinction.

在大众的认知中，克拉高谷的群山紧靠着底格里斯河和幼发拉底河，横穿过叙利亚的坦克墓地，在喀布尔的那些婴粟田下游，沿着开罗-达喀尔高速路开车向南很快就能到达。大众的认知和政治的想象不再能把他们一一区分开来——或者说从来没能做到过——并且大众艺术（popular art）也没有试过厘清这方面的认识。

In Call of Duty, Urzikstan is an Ur-Country; a prototypical Over There that developer Infinity Ward can layer historical events on. It’s a country Russia invaded and has occupied for two decades. Farah Karim, one of the game’s principal protagonists is modeled on Kurdish freedom fighters . Though her real world origins feel Syrian, her back story and fight—dislodging an imperial power occupying her home—are Afghan.

《使命召唤》中，乌兹克斯坦是一个落后的国家；又很典型的一个国度，IW组的人能把很多历史事件以这里为舞台上演（Ur-Country是啥？这一句请看原文）。俄罗斯入侵了这个国家，并且占领了有二十多年。法拉（Farah Karim）是游戏的主角之一，她是Kurdish freedom fighters的领袖。虽然她的真实原型似乎来自叙利亚，但她的背景故事和战场经历——赶走占据她故乡的帝国势力——是在阿富汗。

In Call of Duty’s two most emotionally impactful missions, I played through Farah’s childhood. She wakes up in the rubble of a building after a Russian airstrike, her dead mother staring at her. She escapes through the ruined streets of her home, dodging Russian soldiers and avoiding the gas of an unnamed chemical weapon. In the final moments of the first mission, she sneaks through fields of poppy while snow capped mountains loom in the distance. Both are features of Afghanistan.

在使命召唤最具情感渲染力的两个任务里，我扮演法拉经历了她的童年。俄军一场空袭后，她在一片废墟中醒来。逃亡路上，她穿过被炸毁的街道，躲避了俄军士兵还逃过了一种无名的化学武器的攻击。在第一个任务的最后，她偷偷地穿过了大片大片的罂粟田，远处还有雪山。这些都是阿富汗的特征。

Russia invaded and occupied Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It used chemical weapons—though not on the scale depicted in Call of Duty—and devastated the landscape with air strikes. But America has been in Afghanistan far longer, almost two decades with no real end in sight, and though it didn’t use chemical weapons, it has killed civilians in airstrikes. The highest profile attack being the destruction of a Doctor’s Without Borders hospital in Kurduz which killed 42.

1979年至1989年期间，苏联入侵并占领了阿富汗。他们使用过化学武器——但没有到《使命召唤》所表现的那般大规模——也没用空袭摧毁一切。相反，美国在阿富汗的时间更长，已经快有二十年了，并且目前还看不到头，尽管他们没有使用化学武器，但还是在空袭中杀害过平民。最让舆论哗然的是炸毁了无国界医生运转的昆都士精神创伤医院，造成42人死亡。

Urzikstan is also Libya. On September 11, 2012, Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The fighters killed four Americans. In Urzikstan, the destruction was more wanton and dozens of innocent embassy personnel died as I moved through Call of Duty’s stand in for the Benghazi Consulate, putting round after round into al-Qatala—the game’s stand in for al-Qaeda—bodies. It’s the best mission in the game.

乌兹克斯坦也是利比亚。2012年9月11日，伊斯兰教徒组织Ansar al-Sharia攻击了美国驻利比亚班加西领事馆，攻击者杀害了四名美国人。在乌兹克斯坦，暴行变本加厉，数十名无辜的大使馆人员遇害，这是《使命召唤》里班加西领事馆的再现，我一轮接一轮地朝着al-Qatala猛射——这是游戏里基地组织的翻版——尸横遍野。这是整个游戏最棒的关卡。

America is at war, by any reasonable definition, in at least seven different countries. The real total may be higher, but it is hard to say given how much information is still classified. American troops fight in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Niger. It’s also conducting support and surveillance operations in places such as the Philippines, where the Islamic State has a foothold.

无论是哪种意义上，美国都正处在战争之中，并且在至少七个不同国家作战。真实的数据可能更多，但是很多信息仍然保密，所以很难说清楚。美军在阿富汗，伊拉克，叙利亚，也门，索马里，利比亚还有尼日尔。他们也同样在一些地方进行支援和监视行动，比如有伊斯兰基础的菲律宾。

But back home, all those wars are Over There. Iraq is Afghanistan is Libya is Syria. It’s all “Sand and death,” as the President said. The distinctions between the fight against al-Shabab in Africa and the Taliban in Afghanistan don’t exist. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare exploits these historical moments and turns them into high quality entertainment for the people back home, who don’t want to think about Over There unless it’s about How We’re Winning or How It's Not Our Fault. The distinctions between the conflicts, the countries and their people, are lost. It’s all Over There. It’s all the War.

但是回到本土，战争都只在那些地方。伊拉克，阿富汗，利比亚，叙利亚他们之间没有任何差别。他们全是总统所说的“沙尘与死亡”（川总统早就说过Syria is sand and death）。在非洲打击“伊斯兰青年运动”和在阿富汗打击塔利班没有任何区别。《使命召唤：现代战争》把这些历史时刻变成普通人在家里的高质量娱乐。除非是关于我们如何取胜或者是解释为什么不是我们的错，谁想去思考那些地方发生了什么事？这些冲突、这些国家还有这些平民，他们的差异都消失了。所有的事都在那里发生，所有的一切都是战争。

In America, history repeats first as a video game.

在美国，历史第一次以电子游戏的方式重演。

This article originally appeared on VICE US.