The new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 includes a mission in the single player campaign that is similar to a military operation of the US forces in 2020. A U.S. military drone killed Iranian officer Quasem Soleimani on January 2, 2020. Then-US President Donald Trump later justified giving the order to “obliterate” the general. At the time, many feared that this could trigger a new war. Activision Blizzard has now been asked what it’s all about.
Spoiler alert: The article is about the first few minutes of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 single player campaign.
This was the assassination in the “real” world: On January 2, 2020 at 11 p.m. German time, Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was killed by a US military drone in Iraq (via Spiegel).
The order to turn it off came from US President Donald Trump. He made the Iranian military officer indirectly responsible for militia attacks on the US embassy in Baghdad.
Soleimani had arrived at Baghdad airport on a scheduled flight from Damascus. The convoy of vehicles that was supposed to pick him up was fired at with missiles from an American MQ-9 Reaper drone. In addition to Soleimani, other members of the military died, as well as civilian airport employees and his son-in-law.
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Trump justified “wiping out” the general
These were the consequences: The General’s death caused deep dismay and sadness across the Arab world. As a result, there were threats against the United States. Many reporters feared a new war.
Trump later defended the killing of the Iranian general. He explained: “We acted to stop a war. We did not act to start a war.”
Soleimani had been working on “sinister attack plans” against US targets and was therefore “wiped out”. Had he been killed sooner, many lives could have been saved, Trump said (via Mirror).
The Call of Duty campaign is often controversial:
CoD: Modern Warfare 2 shows the campaign in the launch trailer
Many see parallels to the assassination in Mission 1 of Modern Warfare 2
How is it in the new Call of Duty? As the middleeastmonitor site reports, after just 5 minutes into the campaign in the “Strike” mission, players are given the task of killing the Iranian general “Ghorbrani”.
After the player has tagged him, you direct a missile that launches from a stationary device towards the general, killing him and everyone around in an explosion.
This is seen by some as a direct reference to the Soleimani attack – although the general’s name has been changed.
Visually, Ghobrani with the white bushy beard somewhat resembles the real-world Iranian general:
This is how Twitch streamer HasanAbi experienced the situation:
CoD is not based on actual events – but is inspired by them
Here’s what Activision Blizzard says: On one interview opportunity, Narraitve Director Brian Bloom was asked about the ethos behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2:
It’s a fun adventure. As far as real people and things doing real things go, it’s not based on actual events. We do not comment on current events. We are inspired by them.
When you play, we want you to feel like it’s happening in the world you live in. Our heroes are there to do things that will bring the world back to how it used to be. They restore the world. And that’s part of the ethos that we hold at Modern Warfare.
There had already been strong criticism of CoD: Modern Warfare in 2019 because the game was too political for some Russian players. Call of Duty has traditionally been accused of conducting propaganda for the US military:
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