The U.S. has already check-mated and removed Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, but they are still in play as part of a Canadian toy company’s war-themed chess set.
The company, Hegwig & Sergeant Major, offers Taliban, Iraqi, Canadian, British and American pieces. The chess sets go for $250 a pop.
George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Hussein and bin Laden are kings. The World Trade Center is a rook, a bomb-vest wearing Taliban suicide bomber is a knight, American soldiers and Mahdi Army soldiers are pawns.
There are informative descriptions of pieces, like the Taliban rook, a bearded dude wielding an RPG launcher:
“Taliban snipers dressed in casual clothing which helps to keep them discreet in public. By January 2009 the Taliban made the extremely exaggerated claim that they had killed 5,220 foreign troops, downed 31 aircraft, destroyed 2,818 NATO and Afghan vehicles and killed 7,552 Afghan soldiers and police in 2008 alone. The Associated Press estimated that a total of 286 foreign military personnel were actually killed in Afghanistan in 2008.”
There are not very many women to be seen. The Taliban queen is simply a “Woman In Burqa,” who looks like a Popsicle with feet. And while Afghan women have not had much of a visible role on the Taliban side, the toy company could have done better than the Statue of Liberty as queen. Ahem, Condoleeza Rice?
[via <a href="http://uk.gawker.com/5813931/now-you-can-own-the-taliban-chess-set">Gawker, Time]
