The Tal Afar video game

George Packer had a terrific article in last week's New Yorker about the dwindling chances to succeed in Iraq. He focuses on the military's success in the volatile town of Tal Afar as an example of what should have been done from the start: true counterinsurgency warfare, which is "twenty per cent military and eighty per cent political." (The administration has also been focusing on Tal Afar, even though the military has largely succeeded there by contradicting White House and Pentagon strategy for Iraq, Packer says). That means learning the culture and tribal politics of the Iraqis, earning their trust, even living among them.

Here's how the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment trained for Tal Afar:

Instead of preparing for tank battles, the regiment bought dozens of Arab dishdashas, which the Americans call “man dresses,” and acted out a variety of realistic scenarios, with soldiers and Arab-Americans playing the role of Iraqis. “We need training that puts soldiers in situations where they need to make extremely tough choices,” Captain Sellars, the troop commander, said. “What are they going to see at the traffic control point? They’re possibly going to have a walk-up suicide bomber—O.K., let’s train that. They’re going to have an irate drunk guy that is of no real threat—let’s train that. They’re going to have a pregnant lady that needs to get through the checkpoint faster—O.K., let’s train that.” Pictures of Shiite saints and politicians were hung on the walls of a house, and soldiers were asked to draw conclusions about the occupants. Soldiers searching the house were given the information they wanted only after they had sat down with the occupants three or four times, accepted tea, and asked the right questions.

I mention this in light of a story in Wired about a new game, Tactical Iraqi, used to train soldiers to "navigate the mysterious world of international nonverbal language." Here's a description of the game, and notice how it fits into the real-life training mentioned above:

In Tactical Iraqi, players navigate a set of real-life scenarios by learning a set of Arabic phrases, culturally relevant gestures and taboos. Other titles include Tactical Levantine and Tactical Pashto. Following each lesson, the player is asked to interact with other characters using speech and gestures, while a speech-recognition system records and evaluates the responses. Accurate responses allow the soldier to build a rapport with other characters and advance to the next level.

I think this is fascinating not just because it shows the military understands the challenges of fighting in unfamiliar countries, or because it shows how deep video games have seeped into the culture. I think it's cool because it shows how sophisticated games are -- a body language simulator! -- and reiterates that video games can do anything. That's what innovation is: Making a game of something you wouldn't normally associate with video games, and making it fun.