Got one of my kids an X-Box 360 for Christmas this year; he was always going over to a friend's house to play "Halo 2", so we figured we'd keep him at home some. As I was picking the game system up, I was wondering why the game system came with a headset. I soon found out why...
Over X-Box Live, it seems like a good percentage of our teenage boys are practicing small-unit combat while playing these "first-person shooter" video games. They talk back-and-forth with their team members over the headsets, coordinating their attacks. For the select few that go into the Army or Marines, they'll have been practicing squad-level tactics for most of their teenage years. I don't think it's a conspiracy by Bill Gates or anything to militarize our children, but I don't think the Pentagon could have planned it any better if they'd wanted to. Now, if we can only put export controls on the games so teenage wannabe jihadis don't start doing the same...