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- freebasen, on 11/13/2007, -0/+29So sappy story time. My Brother served in the first Iraq war. My Family had bought him an Atari Lynx for Christmas and some games. He brought the system with him to Iraq and spent a great deal of down-time playing it. My mother would prepare care packages with the usual candies and clothing, but would also include games as we could afford them (which wasn't often at the time I'm afraid). Well, as it turned out, one way or another my brother managed to get his Lynx run over by a tank. My mother called Atari and explained the situation to them, and was told that she would receive a call back. Someone called back to say that even though it was not within the warranty (obviously!!), they would handle the situation in light of the circumstances. A month or two later my brother informed us that he had received several boxes of Atari Lynxes and games for him and his buddies. I always thought that was an awesome story that Atari deserved credit for.
- lucidguru, on 11/13/2007, -7/+19611 billion could easily afford each one of our ~3 million soldiers their own 360 elite ($450), PS3 ($600), Wii($250), 40' Sony LCD HDTV ($1600), a 12 month gold live subscription ($60), a high speed satellite internet connection for a year ($800), a state of the art gaming PC ($4000), 100 games ($6000), a leather recliner ($2000), year supply of beer ($6000), 20 ounces of hydroponic marijuana ($8000 but probably less), a year's supply Funyuns ($1000), a year's supply of ice cream sandwiches ($1000), a year's supply of Gatorade ($1000), year's supply of frozen pizza's ($2000), an expensive oven ($1000), a year's supply of microwave popcorn ($1000), a microwave ($100), a state of the art HD-DVD ($1000), 365 HD pr0nos ($8000), a surround sound stereo system ($2000), Satellite television with extra sports, movie channels, plus 100 on demand movies ($2000), an iphone with unlimited minutes for a year ($2000), a manufactured 1 bedroom, 1 bath, house ($100,000).
And even after all of these costs the government would still have roughly $50,000 to spend on every soldier. - blueboxed, on 11/13/2007, -0/+9there is a lot of down time in Iraq... and it gets very, very, boring. i would have loved to play xbox out there...
- DeviantDragon, on 11/13/2007, -2/+8Yeah, are we sure the biggest headache for soldiers serving in Iraq is boredom and not, I don't know, serving in Iraq?!
- h4mx0r, on 11/13/2007, -1/+6It gets lonely out there on the battlefield. I think we should send some Companion Cubes over.
- Hickeroar, on 11/13/2007, -0/+5Makes me wish they were still in business so I could go buy some of their stuff...
- viper565, on 11/13/2007, -0/+4I did. He got it spot on.
- Burritoking924, on 11/13/2007, -2/+6Thats quite a bit of number crunching you did there. Anyone care to double check his work?
- jmpeagle, on 11/13/2007, -0/+4369,000
more than half of which are stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deployments_of_the_Un ... - apollo168, on 11/13/2007, -5/+9Clearly all troops stationed in Iraq are raping and murdering everyone without a care. And if they can't play nice, they can't have nice things. The kicker is that they all want to be there, too. They love it. Troops love being deployed and getting shot at. They love the heat and the sand. The sand kicks ass. I agree, we should be feeding starving people instead of helping troops we erroneously sent to Iraq. Remember, all our troops want to be there. And I also agree we should not give them any distractions from all that raping and murdering. They have a job to do dammit, and idle hands are the devil's playground. I don't want video games getting in the way of our troops doing what they do best... getting smeared by douchebags named Roger on the Internet.
You, sir, are a dolt. - sanman, on 11/13/2007, -3/+6Call of Duty 4 FTW!
- teaBagger, on 11/13/2007, -2/+5I thought "Fun for our Troops" involved Hookers, Gambling, and Alcohol???
- hungarian33, on 11/13/2007, -1/+4how many soldiers are abroad exaclty?
- RedRummy, on 11/13/2007, -0/+3Anyone else noticed the XBox360 controller in the recent UK Army advert... they're practically playing games anyway... :) http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=8209 ...
- AriaStar, on 11/13/2007, -3/+6Too many.
- navitatl, on 11/13/2007, -0/+3Better make it 366 pornos. Don't forget leap year.
- whatthefu, on 11/13/2007, -0/+3Uh why not just increase soldiers' pay to begin with and let them do what they want with their money?
- Hickeroar, on 11/13/2007, -1/+4LOL draft? I smell a moron.
- DeviantDragon, on 11/13/2007, -0/+3No, serving in Iraq entails undergoing the day to day dangers of occupying the country. The casualties and violence are real and regardless of the fact that they chose to be there, don't you think that these trials and tribulations could be classified as a headache? Cause I'm sure all our soldiers are sitting in their barracks thinking, "*****, you know, if only we encountered more roadside IEDs so that we'd have some excitement! It's so damn boring when we aren't in firefights and bandaging each others' wounds!" No, *****, boredom is making light of the situation.
- DeviantDragon, on 11/13/2007, -0/+2Yes, my comment undermining the article's intent is undermining in a facetious manner. This construct was intended for the purposes of observational humor in pointing out the obvious which is often used by people intending to evoke reactions of amusement.
- blueboxed, on 11/13/2007, -1/+3LOL@Draft....
- Hickeroar, on 11/13/2007, -0/+2When you're not out killing baddies, why not sit at home....and kill baddies!
- mattsw84, on 11/13/2007, -0/+2They all chose to be there, why would you sign up if your just going to wuss out and let people down when it gets though. Soldiers don't pick wars, politicians do.
- stupidclese, on 11/13/2007, -0/+2For the vast majority of people serving in Iraq, it is nowhere near as dramatic as you seem to believe. Most of the time you don't have to deal with 'casualties and violence', although it sucks when you do.
- mattsw84, on 11/13/2007, -0/+2They frown upon that these days.
- inactive, on 11/13/2007, -2/+3Everyone there has chosen to go *****. Yes, it's boredom.
- drexl, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1Why don't we start a donation group for something useful....like ***** body armor
- Roger, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1Umm... right. So we agree that they're there by choice?
- EuphopiaB, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1Thank you for the perspective. With large numbers like 100,000,000+, it is easy to just think "that's a big number" than actually consider it's size. Things like your comment really help to put it in terms of what we as humans can relate to. Otherwise it ends up "611 billion... yup that's a lot. Bit more than 500 billion, not quite a trillion" but that doesn't really tell me as a person how much it is.
- inactive, on 11/13/2007, -1/+2that's good work Because they're doing absolutely nothing else and management don't wanna bring them back home, so yeah, give them something to do.
- Bodhinature, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1Well, lets see, there are over 700 military bases all over the world creating a huge empir - uh - defensive grid. So, you tell me.
- Roger, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1Wow that went right over your head...
- scallon, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1not nearly as fun.
- daizaru, on 11/13/2007, -1/+2Ah cool, a version of Child's Play for soldiers... why not. I already gave my money to Penny-Arcade this year.
- Hickeroar, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1Dugg for (possibly faux) eloquence...
- Asianwaste, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1No it's not
- Hickeroar, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1That's a surprisingly low number considering the fact that there are 1.4million ACTIVE troops. Even more surprising when you take the non-active members into account. I believe (don't quote me) that I read somewhere that the total number of USABLE troops is around 3 mil.
- sexybobo, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1not to mention the 100 million or so that can be drafted
- robbh66, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1I understand the point you're trying to make but I'm curious: Why would anyone want their tax dollars spent so soldiers could live it up?
And before someone makes a remark about how insensitive this comment is to the soldiers: think about the situation first. - Hickeroar, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1I think it's talking about the fact that when you're not out on duty, you get really bored. Obviously pretty much all of them wish the conflict was over and they were able to be at home. It's not saying that "boredom" is worse than "war."
- bootstrap, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1lolz I they should have enough excitement and outlets to lower stress in a warzone. I mean it would kinda be spitting in their face to send then a BF2 or Counter-strike or smthn...I'd rather send them movies and books
- mwrl, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1We play poker and xbox 360. That is about it people. A few times we switch to spades.
- apollo168, on 11/13/2007, -1/+2One of the sweetest things about living in the US is being able to buy awesome stuff like video games. Our troops can't just walk out to an Iraqi Best Buy and spot the squadron a couple hundred for Halo and an XBox. I would at least like to see them afforded the luxury of Halo. Thoughts on my tax dollars or charity dollars going to video games? How about this: Kickass. Finally people are spending my money the same way I'd spend it.
- cwk140, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1this seems like a good idea. Give them something to take their mind out of the field for a while.
aka roaminmatt - Bodhinature, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1So, who gets to relieve the headache of being from Iraq when a superpower decides to arbitrarily invade your country?
- Asianwaste, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1That's for sailors
- dartmanx, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1Hmmm, I thought you were an idiot. And I was just proven correct.
What? Did I just stereotype you? Oh my. - blaze4metal, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1I'd rather donate money to Ron Paul so that all the troops could come home and play their kid's games.
- Bodhinature, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1So how about a non-profit "Fun for Iraqi Children Who Live in Bombed Out Holes"?
- balls187, on 11/13/2007, -0/+1I found a board that allowed soldiers and family of soldiers to request certain items. One soldier requested Madden 03 (this was back in 2002), so I sent him a copy of the game, and all the ps2 games I had.
I dunno, anything helps right? -
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