“The American public and its political leadership will do anything for the military except take it seriously. The result is a chickenhawk nation in which careless spending and strategic folly combine to lure America into endless wars it can’t win”.
Let’s get one thing straight. I salute our soldiers. They’re making sacrifices I’m not sure I could. I’m proud of them.
The movie American Sniper is stirring up a lot of emotions about the Iraq war. From my keyboard, it seems to have given birth to a “with us or against us” attitude. The Right seems to be on the side of the movie, the Left opposes it. Of course neither side is right. The Right seems to be condemning those who don’t support the movie as being somehow un-American. The Right is completely ignoring freedom of speech. The Left isn’t listening to the the Right, even though liberalism is the recognition of all thought.
I purposely avoided all the press about the movie before I went and saw it last weekend.
First, I don’t think the movie deserves a Best Picture nod. It’s a good movie, yes. But it’s not Best Picture quality. What is great, is Bradley Cooper’s acting. Bradley Cooper does deserve a Best Actor nomination.
For me, the movie wasn’t about killing. It was more about what Irag vets go through when they come home. It was about what their families go through. Do I recommend the movie? Yes. But here’s the backstory.
Throughout the movie Chris Kyle is portrayed as a God fearing Christian. But in his book he talks about the enemy as “savages”. He bragged that he killed “34 n*** looters” after Katrina. Kyle, to me, doesn’t reflect anything remotely close to Christianity or the teachings of Jesus. He reminds me of someone who goes to church on Sunday morning, then kicks his dog Sunday afternoon. Based on what I’ve read, Kyle is not a man I’d look up to.
After reading about the lies and inaccuracies, I’m even less impressed. Kyle didn’t punch Jesse Ventura, as he claims in his book. In fact Kyle had never even met Ventura.
Kyle profited on Ventura’s name and Ventura was right to sue for libel. Kyle also profited on being a Navy SEAL, something SEAL’s are not supposed to do. SEAL’s are supposed to perform their service without a trace.
Here’s a link to a piece The Washington Post did about Kyle, that leaves out the n word.
R.I.P, Chris Kyle. You were an exceptional soldier. Our country owes your family a debt it cannot repay.
The Iraq war was a mistake. I think the only thing it accomplished was to destabilize the region and give terrorists a home base to operate out of.
Hindsight is 20/20. But if we’d have done two things, the world would be a different place:
1. reinforce cockpit doors
2. kill Bin Laden while we was on the run in Tora Bora.
Instead, we’ve spent two trillion dollars and counting, lost a lot of American lives, on a war we can’t win.
This piece in the Atlantic – “The Tragedy of the American Military” is a must read for those who seek out both sides of the story. I think, it’s the best piece I’ve read to date on the Iraq war.
I get it. There’s bad guys who want to take us down. But the way we’ve gone about getting the bad guys has failed, it’s made things worse.
The Iraq war was perhaps our country’s biggest blunder. I believe we should have spent that money making our country stronger, from the inside out. And now, with trigger happy Republicans controlling Congress, we could be headed back to a war that by any definition, we can’t win.
I used to buy soldiers drinks, salute them when I saw them in airports or in public. I’ll still salute them – in private. After reading this piece the best thing that I can do for American soldiers is to support policy and politicians that would not send them into “…endless wars it can’t win”.
Leave a Reply