The Israeli Defense Force has, in the most egregious display of death-worshipping idiocy I can every recall, gamified its war blog, giving visitors badges and points for tweeting, sharing, and otherwise spreading the word about Israel’s war on terror.

Someone needs to go intifada on the a-little-knowledge-is-a-dangerous-thing moron who thought this up, because whatever you believe about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, glorifying death — like the Hamas leader assassinated on almost-live YouTube yesterday — and making a game out of war is stupid, wrong, and unspeakably distasteful.

Here are all the badges you too can win for participating in this sick game:

I’m going to lay my cards out on the table (stupid, I know) because I don’t want to be mistaken. I support Israel’s right to exist. I support Israel’s right to defend itself. I think that we in the West have absolutely no freaking clue what it’s like to live under threat of terror, rockets, and suicide bombings month after month, year after year. I think we have not idea what it’s like to live next to neighboring nations who hate you and want to erase you from the face of the planet.

But it’s not OK to glorify war. It’s not OK to broadcast killings as if they were some sporting match — yay, a goal for our team — or release images with enemies combatants with the word ELIMINATED pasted over top.

If there is no fundamental respect for human life, even in the midst of war, and terror, and death, and destruction, the good guys look very much like that bad guys.

Don’t go there, Israel! Don’t go there.

This is not fun. It is not a game. People are dying. Death is final, and loved ones are left behind. Children are left fatherless … when they are not themselves caught in the crossfire. This is not Xbox, this is real life.

War is not a game.

photo credit: mugley via photopin cc; hat tip: ReadWriteWeb

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