US Should Consider Putting Plainclothes Soldiers in Schools, Call of Duty Director Says

Dave Anthony, who directed Call of Duty: Black Ops and its sequel, says the United States government should consider putting plainclothes soldiers in schools to help prevent future attacks. Speaking this week at a "Future of Unknown Conflict" forum hosted by the thinktank Atlantic Council, Anthony said these soldiers could work in a similar capacity to air marshals on commercial flights.

"The threat now, the invasion, comes from within," Anthony said in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, as reported by Businessweek. "Imagine there was a concept of something like a 'school marshal,'" he said. “These guys are U.S. soldiers who are in plainclothes, whose job and part of their responsibility is to protect schools. They're not walking around in camo gear with machine guns strapped around their shoulders. But they are armed and capable of dealing with threats as they happen."

Such a system would allow American troops to be proactively used to help mitigate security issues in the country, he said. Anthony added that he expects not everyone will agree with his plan. "The public won't like it, they'll think it's a police state. However, he said the issues of public perception for such a plans "are solvable problems."

"What I want to do is try and challenge people to think about these issues in a different way," he said.

Last week, the Atlantic Council announced that it had brought Anthony on to lend his experience to the Future of Unknown Conflict presentation. During his talk, Anthony also showed videos that highlighted potential threats, including a US drone being hacked by Iran and a hotel massacre in Las Vegas.

Anthony's presentation also addressed the topic of implementing potentially unpopular ideas as solutions to national security problems in America.

"When we have a new product that has elements that we're not sure how people will respond to, what do we do as a corporation?" he asked. "We market it, and we market it as much as we can--so that whether people like it or not, we do all the things we can to essentially brainwash people into liking it before it actually comes out."

"I look at the U.S. military and government, ironically, as having some of the very same problems as what the Call of Duty franchise has," he added. "We are both on top of our game. We are both the best in the world at what we do. We both have enemies who are trying to take us down at any possible opportunity. But the difference is, we know how to react to that."

You can watch Anthony's full presentation at the Atlantic Council's website.