Sniping Over the Sniper

There’s been an awful lot of sniping going on surrounding the movie American Sniper, the story of Chris Kyle based on Kyle’s memoir of the same title.  It’s an argument that like damn near every argument in America these days, has no gray area, got nasty from the start and spares neither the movie, its director Clint Eastwood, the Iraq War, the book, nor Chris Kyle himself.  And like arguments in America it managed to go off the rails into wild irrelevance.  A prime example was Michael Moore hauling Jesus into the donnybrook.   I saw the movie the weekend it debuted and shortly afterwards I noticed all the hoo-haw that was hitting the media.  And so I decided to read the book and a fair amount of articles in order to make up my own mind. 

Let’s start with the reasonable observation that if you go to the movies to get your history lessons then your knowledge of history is pretty flawed.  It seems damn near every movie claims to be “based on a true story.”  Take a particular period, some characters real or fictional add some events that may or may not have happened and for many you have history.  The problem with this is that producers make movies to make money and not to make historians.  If you want to learn history then you’ll need to do it the old fashioned way – read a book.

The movie takes a hell of a lot of license with the book, starting with a scene of Kyle shooting a child who was in the process of the throwing a grenade at an American patrol - this never happened. From there most of the combat scenes are a series of events, most of them apparently fictionalized, which are, I imagine, supposed to be an encompassing dramatized representation of Kyle’s four tours of duty in Iraq. 

Where book and movie find a more contiguous relationship are in the descriptions of Kyle’s views on killing; the physical and emotional scars that came from Kyle’s four tours and the strains that were placed on Kyle, his wife Taya and their two children.  But even here, the book only grazes the problems that Kyle had when he returned to the states.  The movie doesn’t touch on Kyle’s drinking problems or the many fights that he found himself in which at one point he sees as a serious warning signal.  The movie pays lip service to many of the problems that Kyle began to notice during his final tour.

Wrote Kyle, “Things seemed to go downhill in the few days after we got back from border patrol.  I couldn’t sleep, I felt very jumpy.  Extremely jumpy.  And my blood pressure shot up again, even higher than before. I felt like I was going to explode….I sweated buckets and my hands would even shake.  My face pretty white to begin with became pale. 

This might be a good place to add my own perspective of the period.  When the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were being contemplated I was less than enthusiastic.  While I saw some measure of justification about Afghanistan I’d studied the histories of British and Soviet failures in that “graveyard of empires.”  It was, I thought, a place that would swallow us for a very long time before finally regurgitating a worn out nation with nothing to show for the effort.

Iraq, I was convinced, was foolish adventurism built on dubious claims at best and outright lies at worst.  No good could come of it.  The power vacuum that was predicted came true and now a larger part of the world is mired in ISIS.   I remember clearly the day that the Iraq War began.  My son was away at college, my wife was away on a trip somewhere and my daughter and I were at a local restaurant having dinner.  We were sitting at Pear Street Bistro when the word went around the dining room that the war had begun.  I suppose that I muttered something about Bush being a dumbass and then dug into my calamari.  That moment it turned out would be the beginning of my own personal apathy that would be the microcosm for an unconcerned nation.  

I should probably also mention that I don’t consider Chris Kyle to be a hero.  And that isn’t to demean Chris Kyle.  I don’t believe that he wasn’t courageous or that he was any more flawed than any other individual.  No, the word “hero” is not in my vocabulary.  I’m not really sure what a hero is.  It’s a little word that’s big in stature and thrown around loosely to describe anyone from a lotto winner to a teacher to an athlete to an “American Idol” to a Medal of Honor recipient. 

The first significant shot came, not surprisingly Michael Moore.  Tweeted Moore, "My uncle [was] killed by sniper in WW2.  We were taught snipers were cowards.  Will shoot you in the back.  Snipers aren't heroes.”   Moore caught hell for it and then reacted as if his tweet had nothing to do with Chris Kyle; as if the subject of snipers just randomly popped into his head. 

Not to be outdone, Max Blumenthal chimed in, comparing Kyle to John Lee Malvo the DC sniper and calling Kyle a “mass murderer.”  Blumenthal went on, “I haven’t seen American Sniper, but correct me if I’m wrong: An occupier mows down faceless Iraqis but the real victim is his anguished soul,”

Bill Maher, he of the permanent supercilious smirk joined in, dubbing Kyle a “psychopath.”

The first problem is Blumenthal’s admission that he hadn’t seen the movie but typical of 21^st century journalism and commentary that didn’t disqualify him from rendering a personal posthumous attack on Chris Kyle himself.  I’m going to assume that he didn’t read Kyle’s book either and I’m also going to assume that neither Moore nor Maher did any research beyond the film’s 30 second trailer.  Why would they?  The stock in trade of partisan punditry is sleight of truth and shoot first and then check the facts if you happen to get called on them (or simply disappear and hope the fallout goes away).  After all we can’t let any facts get in the way of a good slander. 

Why do I have a problem with these individuals?  First of all I doubt their scholarship.  They’ve put out the notion that the snipers in Iraq were taking their high powered rifles and plinking at innocuous Iraqis who were doing nothing more lethal than eating a Snickers bar or taking a shit.  The fact is, the mission of these snipers was to take a high position and provide over watch for American patrols.  The victims were active combatants unseen by troops on the ground while setting IEDs or preparing to ambush American soldiers. 

The bigger problem that I have is a criticism of the movie that drifts over a line to personally attack Chris Kyle.  A movie is just that, a movie.  You like it or you don’t – no harm either way.  The attacks against Kyle, many with little more homework than watching the trailer or parroting someone else’s opinion are reminiscent of the reception that American soldiers received when returning from Vietnam.  Not surprisingly this criticism comes from folks that have spent the last decade safely in the good old US of A. Those who were combatants have a different view.  Garret Reppenhagen a former sniper writing in Salon takes on the movie for its narrow view of the war in Iraq and he also takes on the war itself but he spares Kyle of any character attacks.  He writes, “My war was completely different than Chris Kyle’s war. That doesn’t mean his war is wrong, and mine was right. But it does mean that no one experience is definitive.”

The movie has been criticized for steering clear of either a moral or political statement on the Iraq War. It is from beginning to end just a war movie.  There is no finale with the disillusion and melancholy of other “statement” war movies like the classic Deer Hunter.  And so without that moral scream the leap has been made that American Sniper is a glorification.  But again, American Sniper is just a movie.  And just as we shouldn’t be getting our history lessons from movies we should also not look to movies for moral direction.  That comes from within, as individuals and in this instance, as a nation.  Before vilifying Chris Kyle maybe we should do a review of what we were doing and where we all were, mentally and morally, as individuals and as a nation since 9/11

We've been in Iraq for 12 years now and while a short time ago in the pre-ISIS days it looked like we would finally be out the end no longer seems to be in sight.  Some of us, me among them, saw the disaster in the making from the start (although we weren't sure what form it would take) while others saw it as a crusade both literally and figuratively.

The Bush Administration hit us with the hard sell on Iraq and we bought it.  We the people of the United States of America acquiesced to the Iraq War.  We acquiesced through The House and Senate (including notable Democrats Feinstein, Biden, Reid, Kerry and Daschle).  We whimpered a few protests, called Bush a dumbass Texan and then we went back to Super Bowls, American Idol, and standing in line for the latest IPhone.  The war ground on and on and on and as much of a dumbass as some took Bush for he was smart enough to avoid making a two front war a burden on America – at least not a burden that was noticeable.  No rationing, no taxes and no draft.  As long as you didn't have any skin in the game (or should I say flesh in the game) in the form of actually serving or having family or friends serve, it was all good. 

And not very many Americans have had skin in that game.  In World War II, more than 12 percent of Americans served.  In 1973, after we’d extracted ourselves from Vietnam, the decision was made that America’s defense would be shouldered by an all-volunteer army.  And so Bush sent America to war in the Middle East with a military that represented less than .5 percent of the population.  Unless you haven’t noticed, Americans don’t worry themselves over small segments of society.  We enjoyed a quiet dinner at home while we watched a few minutes of tepid coverage on the news.  Yeah the news; we had enough problems at home what with a growing recession, mass murders, politicians emailing photos of their privates and professional athletes making idiots of themselves.  We were only slightly bothered by the casualties and the broken men and women who returned from the Middle East.  Compared with the war in Vietnam, the numbers were paltry.  And certainly we weren't overly concerned about the civilian casualties.  We acquiesced with our thumbs up our collective national ass for years and years and years.  Hell, there were times when the war garnered all the attention of a minor league hockey game.  The national yawn wasn't lost on Chris Kyle when he came home between tours.

Wrote Taya Kyle (In the book American Sniper), “The first time Chris came home, he was really disgusted with everything.  With America especially.  In the car on the way back to our house, we listened to the radio. People weren't talking about the war; life went on as if nothing was happening in Iraq. ‘People are talking about bullshit,’ he said.”    

We continued to acquiesce by reelecting the man who launched the adventure.  Finally over five years after it all started we elected a man who actually voted against the Iraq War and proposed an exit.  We elected him over a ticket that exhibited all of the class and intellect of an Adam Sandler character so it’s almost hard to say whether or not the election was a statement against the war or the nation saying, “Oh hell no,” to the unelectable pair..

In the more than a decade of warfare on two fronts I don’t recall that the recruiting offices had ever closed up shop.  And in all that time there were plenty of war hawks pounding their chests, calling for war and shouting “Hooah” like the soldiers they wanted to be but for the inconvenience of having to leave home and hearth for the Iraqi desert.  They didn't do anything more dangerous than hit the paintball fields while Kyle and comrades lived the shit.  The brave boys at home just got a big rush out of living the adventure vicariously.

And from the left?  Shit, from the left there was barely a whimper of protest.  I know protests.  I remember the Vietnam protests that brought a president to his knees.  But the left of the 21^st century roared like a little lost lamb.  Lost in their sushi bars harrumphing on social media and waiting for someone to hit the streets in protest.  Well they’re still waiting.  And now fifteen years later the left finds itself scandalized, appalled and in a lather because a movie came out that depicts an American soldier killing people.  Really?  It took a fucking movie?  And to add to the left’s consternation they found that Chris Kyle, in both book and movie, called the Iraqis “savages”

Kyle may have been talking about combatants or Iraqis in general, I frankly don’t know.  He showed no remorse for his kills (every one he claims is within the rules of engagement (ROE) and clearly he got a rush out of combat.  For all of that Kyle has been vilified by a left that was too busy to put down their 8 dollar craft beer long enough to figure out what the hell was going on.  And now they've brought out the pitchforks and torches.  And for what?  Because he killed people?  What in the hell did everybody think was going on over there?  I’m not quite sure what it is that folks expect out of young men and women who serve in the armed forces and especially those soldiers who see combat.  Chris Kyle was not unlike other soldiers.  He went into an elite military unit (a unit we praised for saving a ship’s captain and for killing Bin Laden) that trained him to kill people in a war that we agreed to, either implicitly or explicitly, and then ignored until it took a movie to break the stupor.

By all accounts Kyle did what he was sent there to do and he followed the rules of engagement that were given him.  He was killing combatants and doing it quite efficiently thank you.  He gave us the bang (no pun intended) for our taxpayer dollar. While he did four tours of duty we played our own game of don’t ask – don’t tell.  We didn't bother to ask, so the government figured it didn't have to tell. It was the perfect symbiotic relationship.

It’s disturbing to me that there are so many who are quick to vilify and don’t bother to take the time to go any deeper than a Hollywood production, a few hit pieces on social media and some glib comments from the likes of Moore and Maher.  Chris Kyle deserved better.  He did our bidding and like many other soldiers Kyle didn't come back undamaged.  He survived three gunshot wounds, two helicopter crashes, six IED attacks and numerous surgeries (some to repair both knees damaged when a concrete wall fell on his legs).  He was luckier than Marcus Luttrell another SEAL, he of Lone Survivor fame who was also pilloried by the liberal media.  In Luttrell’s words, he was, “Shot, eleven (times) through-and-through [wounds].  Broken pelvis.  Broken back.  Shoulder was torn out.  My knees were destroyed.  Pretty severe facial damage. I bit my tongue in half. My right hand was destroyed from my thumb over to my index finger.”  You may not like their attitudes.  You may not like their machismo or their braggadocio or their pejoratives or their lack of remorse but they did what they were asked to do.  Had they not, it might have been your son, your husband, your father, or your friend conscripted to do the dirty work.  But then at that point the war would have magically shown up on everyone’s radar as something that had to come to an end immediately if not sooner.  Certainly before the draft notice called little junior away from his college studies.

“One night a little later on we were in an exhausting firefight.  Ten of us spent roughly forty-eight hours in the second story of an old, abandoned brick building, fighting if hundred-degree-plus heat wearing full armor.  Bullets flew in, demolishing the walls around us practically nonstop.  The only break we took was to reload….When the Marines came in to relieve us, they found every man in the room slumped against a wall or collapsed on the floor...”

~ Chris Kyle

Chris Kyle came back with the demons of war dancing in his head.  He finally found his peace by helping the broken men and women who returned from fighting our war.  How many of us lifted a finger for these folks beyond writing a check or signing a petition or harrumphing indignantly when we found out our wounded vets were being mistreated?  In the end Kyle was allegedly shot by a former Marine with PTSD who he was trying to help.

“When he got home, it seemed to me Chris was so stressed he was numb to everything.  It was hard for him to pinpoint how he felt about anything. He was just wiped out and overwhelmed.”  ~ Taya Kyle

Maybe some of the self-righteous outrage should be turned inward.  If you don’t like what Chris Kyle did and what he stood for then perhaps you need to speak up and tell the government and all of the business interests that our government whores for that it isn't alright to piss off other nations by exploiting their people and resources.  And I mean really do something besides posting silly memes and waxing all huffy on Facebook.  Put your own skin in the game and work hard for change. 

We created Chris Kyle and Marcus Luttrell, the warriors.  We created them by allowing wars of adventurism and dubious justification.  We put them in wheelchairs, prosthetics and coffins.  We dug the dens that house the insidious serpents that slither forth to torture their dreams. They are our sons and daughters who do what we have neither the courage to take up nor the fortitude to halt.  They deserve better than to be called “psychopaths” and “cowards” by the ignorant and the self-righteous.