Putting quotes on screen like:
"War is delightful to those who have not yet experienced it."
"Whoever stands by a just cause cannot possibly be called a terrorist."
-and then making a game purely about trying to make the spectacle of war FUN while shooting masses of middle-eastern stereotypes as they run mindlessly at you. Shut the FUCK up.

There's an allusion to self-awareness through these, but if it's not blatant from the gameplay and the narrative and the metanarrative and the developers' intent and the legacy of these games and the military funding and everything else, it's immediately shattered when you die and get the quote:
"Freedom is not free, but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share."

Why even try to include any of the other desperately misplaced statements on terrorism, the horrors of war, what evil must be done in the name of freedom. Nobody making - let alone playing these games gives a damn how America has perpetuated the use of the word "terrorist" to justify racism and genocide and push conservatism to fund the military and place more trust in the government. Everybody making and playing these games is here because it's a gun game. You point and click and don't think about it. People from other countries aren't people, they're an object, an NPC, an aesthetic. Don't listen to what they're saying, don't think about who they are outside of conflict, just point and click like a good dog.

Moral repugnance aside, I'm not even entertained by this game. The setpieces and spectacle really aren't special, partially due to my having played literally any game that's come out since and being unenthused by shooters at large, but I can still pull examples from before Call of Duty that are leagues ahead of this mechanically. I'm not having fun with the military formations and the gunfeel in the ways they clearly want me to, and nothing will ever top having played Metro and Machinegames' library.

The more I think about it, the less I like it. Entertaining, undeniably, but shockingly conspicuous in its pro-military themes and ultimately distasteful story that seems to amount to nothing more than "kill Middle Eastern terrorists!" and for the player to think nothing more of it. Yes, at times it would almost seem to satire this, but at others it seems to indulge in carelessly to the point of supporting it, whittling itself down to a mere patriotic eagle screech.

Yeah, it was fun. But it should it have been?