And it's even worse than that. My husband is obsessed with playing "Gears of War" on Xbox live with his friends in other cities. [img_assist|fid=2603|thumb=1|alt=Gears of War|caption=Gears of war]This game is so violent and horrible, so war-like, that I cannot believe a group of adult men who are fortunate enough not to be in Iraq can spend hours strategizing, stalking, patrolling, and killing via a video screen. Every night this week I have gone to bed to the sound of gunfire, bombs, and troop leaders shouting, "I need backup." I had a nightmare about dead soldiers being airlifted home from Iraq the other night and couldn't figure out why until I came home to "war" in the living room last night.

Is this male need for violence bred in the bone? My husband's mother swears she made him play with dolls in an effort to raise a non gender-biased child. Despite her best efforts, he turned dolls into guns even at age 3. But in the age of real death and mass troop deployment, I cannot believe "Gears of War" is just a game. It feels too cruel to play war at this time.