Well, one thing you can do is play games. This being Saturday, I thought I'd focus on a little computer recreation, and this being a blog that often delves into issues of war and peace, and certainly supports our troops all the way, I thought I'd focus on one of the games I've been playing lately, America's Army.

America's Army is in the First Person Shooter (FPS) genre - where the player's perspective is the view out the eyes of an individual soldier on the battlefield. The emphasis here is on realism. Weapons here behave like the real thing, damage effects are serious and the speed at which a player can run around the battlefield is slower than in other FPS games like say, Counter Strike (also highly recommended), where the realism focus is slightly relaxed.

I should be clear for those who are not familiar with the genre that America's Army is a multi-player online game. You join a server where, from what I've seen, from 7 to 23 others are playing. I generally prefer servers with 14 or 16 players - 7 or 8 to a side. There are two teams, one with offensive objectives, and one on defense. Teamwork is key to success.

All of these screenshots are highly reduced. You can see them larger size and view video clips at the America's Army site.

The price on America's Army is quite appealing - it's free. That's part of what makes America's Army interesting. In this age where our poiticians often aim to score political points by railing against these types of violent video games, our government, specifically the US Army, has produced and is offering its own version free of charge. You just download it for yourself from the site. If the 650 megabyte download is a bit hefty for you 56K modem users, have no fear. You are invited to visit your local Army Recruiting Office where, one presumes, a friendly recruiting officer will be happy to provide you with a CD...and maybe a little sales pitch to go with?

The graphics are outstanding. You'll need a decent rig to play this game and enjoy it in full graphical glory. I'm running on a 1.44gig Athlon with 768megs of RAM and a GeForce Ti4400 graphics card and the game runs quite nicely for me.

The Army takes training seriously, and so does this game. Players generate an account on the Army's server and your statistics and training levels will be tracked. In order to participate in all of the missions available, the player needs to pass through various training excercises. Want to be able to use the sniper rifle? You'll need to pass sniper training with a certain score. Paratrooper? Pass the parachute missions. Want the ability to patch up your buddies? You'll literely need to sit through three classroom lectures, each with a multiple-choice test at the end. A word of advice: Pay attention! The first time I did the medic training I didn't expect a written test at the end. Doh! Even folks seeking Special Forces certification to play the Special Forces missions will not only need to field qualify in evasion techniques, but they will also need to pass a written, multiple-choice test.

Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds, and it does help ensure that the other people you meet on the servers will be serious about playing, and not just there to disrupt other people's good time.

Once you have all your training and certs (not all of which are necessary to play, they're only necessary if you want all the options available), there's still more to do to "Be all you can be." Once you start playing the game, in addition to your score, you'll see another statistic - Honor. This one carries with you from game session to session. It's a measure of time in the game and points garnered. I'm not sure of the exact system, but it seems to have less to do with enemy kills and more to do with successfully completed objectives. From the site:

Frag a bunch of your teammates, and not only could your honor could actually go down, but you may find yourself yanked off the server and staring at the walls of a cell in Levenworth.

You'll need at least a 15 Honor (you start at 10) to play on any of the Special Forces maps, and many servers have a minimum honor level needed to join. Oh, and once you get that 15 Honor, you can trick-out your weapon with your own choice of sights, suppressor, etc...

Don't live in the US? Don't worry. Says the FAQ:

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a downed chopper pilot that needs rescuing, and my Honor needs a bit of polishing after that momentary lapse in muscular coordination I had while holding an RPG...