Action Man: Battlefield Casualties
June 24, 2015 9:04 PM   Subscribe

Action Man: Battlefield Casualties is a disturbing spoof toy commercial in a campaign by Veterans for Peace UK to raise the military recruitment age from 16 to 18. Warning: autoplaying video with graphic violence.
posted by TheophileEscargot (18 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite


 
It may have been more effective if there was any hint of that campaign in the commercials themselves. In particular, Dead Action Man was 19 when identified. What if he'd been 17?
posted by infinitewindow at 9:19 PM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


The organisation behind the film, Veterans for Peace UK, is actually against war generally. This focus on young soldiers is well chosen: they're both the most sympathetic and the most vulnerable group it could have chosen.
On their "the facts" page it says
It is the poorest regions of Britain that supply large numbers of these child recruits. The army has said that it looks to the youngest recruits to make up shortfalls in the infantry, by far the most dangerous part of the military. The infantry's fatality rate in Afghanistan has been seven times that of the rest of the armed forces.

A study by human rights groups ForcesWatch and Child Soldiers International in 2013 found that soldiers who enlisted at 16 and completed training were twice as likely to die in Afghanistan as those who enlisted aged 18 or above, even though younger recruits are, for the most part, not sent to war until they are 18.

The youngest recruits from the poorest backgrounds are often enlisted into front-line combat roles. In fact, the very youngest recruits - aged between 16 and 16 years, 3 months, are only allowed to join combat roles. These non-technical jobs typically involve very limited education and training that becomes virtually worthless to them upon leaving the army.
It also has has this, which made me raise my eyebrows:
In 2009 the Ministry of Defence launched its own range of toy soldiers, called HM Armed Forces. These ‘highly realistic’ dolls cover every branch of the armed forces, albeit with an emphasis on front-line combat roles. The toys also include the 'Character Building' range of Lego-like toys. These include the RAF Predator Drone and Remote Operator playset [...]
Really? MoD, I am offended.
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:33 PM on June 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


Insidious.
posted by Nevin at 9:43 PM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


16 is far too young to be in anyone's army. As far as I'm concerned, that's a child soldier. We rightly condemn moves and nations which send such young people to war.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:21 PM on June 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


16 years old? I had no idea - that's monstrous.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 10:26 PM on June 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


18 year olds are barely competent. It should be 21 if anything.
posted by bleep at 11:07 PM on June 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


Katjusa Roquette: "16 is far too young to be in anyone's army. As far as I'm concerned, that's a child soldier. We rightly condemn moves and nations which send such young people to war."

It can be a bit confusing, but while I would agree that they are too young to be in the army, and I agree that they are "child soldiers", they are not actually sent to war at age 16. Combat duty begins at age 18.
posted by Bugbread at 12:11 AM on June 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


Witty and darkly funny as well as powerful.
posted by colie at 2:32 AM on June 25, 2015


It can be a bit confusing, but while I would agree that they are too young to be in the army, and I agree that they are "child soldiers", they are not actually sent to war at age 16. Combat duty begins at age 18.

Unless -- per a link at Joe in Australia's link (it's at "for the most part" in the text) -- someone fucks up:
Fifteen 17-year-old British soldiers were inadvertently sent to Iraq despite a UN convention to keep children away from armed conflict, it has emerged.
The U.S. does much the same thing (17-year-olds can enlist, with parental permission), and it's fucking inexcusable.
posted by Etrigan at 3:08 AM on June 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


There's a fellow who lives locally, his legs blow off above the knees, his body shattered, who can only talk with a mumbling whine--it's not even clear he has anything to say given the damage to his brain--yet he is, quite literally, wheeled out at every "Help for Heroes" event. I think we're supposed to sorrow his plight, which I do, but not think overmuch about how he got into it. It was "the enemy" who did this, but how and why the enemy became our enemy Chilcot only knows and he's not telling. And that not every poor bugger who gets mangled in some adventurist fiasco is a hero is almost unthinkable. When I point this out to people I'm the one accused of being political. Crippled veterans are politically-neutral, they are meaningless.

Were they but to wheel him out when the recruitment vans pull up in the high street it might make a somewhat different statement. And the recruiting vans definitely do come, because in my town is full of poor working-class kids who leave education at sixteen and you've got to get them when they're young and £20k sounds like a lot of money. Like religion, trap the poor bastards before they wise up and then you've got a warm body you can spend at your leisure. If you wait until they're eighteen they might have got a job, a kid, and half a brain as to the plight of a soldier's life.
posted by Thing at 4:18 AM on June 25, 2015 [12 favorites]


In the UK at 16 you join the armed services and get married but you can't vote
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:13 AM on June 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Were they but to wheel him out when the recruitment vans pull up in the high street it might make a somewhat different statement.

That's a campaign I could get behind. For every recruitment event, set up a table with wheelchair-bound or disabled vets answering questions.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:56 AM on June 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


The list of enlistment ages is an interesting read. Do they actually put 16 year olds into combat?
posted by bukvich at 5:59 AM on June 25, 2015


A lot of car companies don't even view 21-24 year olds as competent to rent a car. Go to war?

1. How about 32 around the age the human brain is fully developed.
2. How about combat positions, even for those who voluntarily join the military; is still completely voluntary. Soldiers can choose what causes they actually believe is worth risking their life or possibly civilian lives in other countries for. If we don't have enough people willing to risk their life for it voluntarily, we don't have a war.

Any people upset we don't have enough to fight the war can go risk their own damn lives to make it happen rather than doing so on the backs of frequently underprivileged youth.

3. Free college for all, not as a hook to get our young men to risk and actually give up their lives or finally "make something of themselves" since we are the ones who taught them they weren't already something.
posted by xarnop at 6:36 AM on June 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


The list of enlistment ages is an interesting read. Do they actually put 16 year olds into combat?

The UK lawfully should not put anybody below eighteen in a combat situation, though it is understood that sometimes they have been deployed accidentally. However, the Deepcut Barracks murders, where four young soldiers (17, 17, 18, and 20) were "suicided"* in the space of seven years, showed that the army isn't capable of caring fully for its young recruits.

(*Officially they killed themselves, but one shot himself twice in the head, and another five times in the chest. Nobody believes they killed themselves any more than they believe a spy could look himself in a holdall.)
posted by Thing at 7:45 AM on June 25, 2015


Do they actually put 16 year olds into combat?

There was a joke a while back that really we should be sending middle aged guys to Iraq. They're all right wing, all angry as hell, and nobody would miss them.
posted by colie at 7:50 AM on June 25, 2015


that was a joke?
posted by entropone at 8:30 AM on June 25, 2015 [2 favorites]




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