America is a country that glorifies war and the military.

[kentuck]

Last edited Fri Jan 23, 2015, 02:18 PM - Edit history (1)

Of course it is going to praise and defend any movie that glorifies war or our military.

The movie, American Sniper, glorifies war. My country, right or wrong. Not once did it question the lies about the invasion of Iraq. Any sniper that assisted in the killing of a million Iraqis is not a hero - he is an accomplice to a war crime.

It is a sickness that inhabits our land. Its symptoms include the highest incarceration rate in the world, an increasing armed citizenry, neglect of our nation's needs - such as education and infrastructure, fraudulent elections and crooked politicians, and unparalleled greed.

This is what happens to a country that chooses war over peace. This is what happens to a country that glorifies war and puts our military upon a pedestal. There is no good ending to this movie.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. I wouldn't go out of my way to see it but those that have...

I wouldn't go out of my way to see it but those that have say it's more nuanced than its detractors give it credit for.

[kentuck]

6. It begins with the planes flying into the Twin Towers...

and that is the rationale for the Texas good ol' boy, tobacco-chewing, flag-waving, beer-drinking, country music-loving patriot to join the Seals and assassinate people in a country that we invaded based on a pack of lies. But that is never questioned in the movie. At least half of the story is missing as we accept the sniper's account of his adventures in Iraq.

[randome]

2. As opposed to ISIS, Boko Haram and all the other groups rampaging across the Mideast?

I agree that our hero worship is misplaced, but compared to other countries I'd rather have this.

And the movie sounds stupid.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]No squirrels were harmed in the making of this post. Yet.[/center][/font][hr]

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. Worshiping the cops or the miltrary seems misplaced.

That being said they deserve a healthy amount of respect and admiration when doing the right thing.

[Chakab]

15. ISIS and Boko Haram are murderous terrorist organizations. Do you not think that there should be a

difference between them and the US with regards to the fetishism of war and violence in general?

[randome]

27. Quite a few beheadin's goin' on in that part of the world.

How long does it take to recognize that part of the world is severely fucked up? We may be fucked up, too, but that doesn't mean it's a contest.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Aspire to inspire.[/center][/font][hr]

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

3. IKE warned us, the machine that feeds war is simply too big and profitable

[L0oniX]

5. Fuck it! Let's build the Death Star.

[Fred Sanders]

7. And salutes the oppressive dictators of Saud while undermining a democracy in Venezuela...while

supporting a dictatorship in Egypt....free speech rights heroism, while looking the other way for oily friends and militarized nations...... it is along and growing list of American Hypocrisy bursting out into the open.

A sickness that lingers because a whole system of pretending there is nothing wrong, and if there is something wrong, nothing can be done about it, has been set up and robustly maintained.

[KG]

8. i think you mean 'inhabits' rather than 'inherits'

jus sayin'

[ChosenUnWisely]

9. Why not it is what we do best as a country!

Just some of the wars the USA has been in since its inception in 1776, if one were to add up the years spend in war it comes to over 200.....Sorry if I missed your favorite war!

We have been at war much longer then we have been at peace.....pretty sad if you ask me.

American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)
Cherokee War (1776)
Chickamauga War (1776–1795)
Northwest Indian War (1785–1793)
Whiskey Rebellion (1791–1794)
Quasi-War (1798–1800)
First Barbary War (1801–1805)
Tecumseh's War (1811)
War of 1812 (1812–1815)
Creek War (1813–1814)
Second Barbary War (1815)
First Seminole War (1817–1818)
Texas-Indian wars (1820–1875)
Arikara War (1823)
Winnebago War (1827)
Second Seminole War (1835–1842)
Second Sumatran expedition (1838)
Mexican–American War (1846–1848)
Cayuse War (1847–1855)
Apache Wars (1851–1900)
Puget Sound War (1855–1856)
Third Seminole War (1855–1858)
Yakima War (1855–1858)
Watermelon War (1856)
Utah War (1857–1858)
Navajo Wars (1858–1866)
Cochinchina Campaign (1858–1862)
First and Second Cortina War (1859–1861)
Reform War (1860)
American Civil War (1861–1865)
Dakota War of 1862 (1862)
Colorado War (1863–1865)
Shimonoseki War (1863–1864)
Snake War (1864–1868)
Red Cloud's War (1866–1868)
Comanche Campaign (1867–1875)
Modoc War (1872–1873)
Red River War (1874–1875)
Las Cuevas War (1875)
Great Sioux War of 1876 (1876–1877)
Nez Perce War (1877)
Bannock War (1878)
Cheyenne War (1878–1879)
Sheepeater Indian War (1879)
White River War (1879–1880)
Pine Ridge Campaign (1890–1891)
Garza Revolution (1891–1893) Mexico
Second Samoan Civil War (1898–1899)
Spanish–American War (1898)
Philippine–American War (1899–1902)
Moro Rebellion (1899–1913)
Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901)
Border War (1910–1919)
Occupation of Nicaragua (1912–1933)
Occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
Occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916–1924)
World War I (1917–1918)
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War (1918–1920)
World War II (1941–1945)
Korean War (1950–1953)
Vietnam War (1955–1973)
U.S intervention in Lebanon (1958)
Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)
Occupation of the Dominican Republic (1965–1966)
Multinational Force in Lebanon (1982-1984)
Invasion of Grenada (1983)
Invasion of Panama (1989–1990)
Gulf War (1990–1991)
Iraqi no-fly zones conflict (1991–2003)
Unified Task Force (1992–1993) Part of the ongoing Somali Civil War
Intervention in Haiti (1994–1995)
Bosnian War (1994–1995)
Kosovo War (1998–1999)
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
Insurgency in Yemen (2002–present)
Iraq War (2003–2011)
War in North-West Pakistan (2004–present)
2011 military intervention in Libya (2011)
International intervention against ISIL (2014–present)

[JEB]

10. That is some list.

I wonder if there is a total death count for all that?

[Lurks Often]

12. The human race has been at war more then peace throughout history

I got bored a couple of years and tried to find a period of time when there wasn't a war going in somewhere and went all the way back to 1750 without finding a single year. And with even a casual knowledge of history prior to 1750, I know there were wars of some sort almost always going on.


The human race wars on each other for religion, resources, land or just because.

[niyad]

13. interesting timing on this list--was just talking about how many wars since the group I was

with were born--sharing this with them, so thanks.

[ashling]

16. Quite a list

I don't know if I missed it, but don't think you included the annexation of Hawaii

[ChosenUnWisely]

17. I did apologize if I did not include ones favorite war; I knew the list was not a complete

accounting of ALL American wars besides Hawaii, which slipped my mind actually, I also noticed I left off the Blackhawk War too. I am sure there are others.

[ashling]

18. Not actually my "favorite",

Still, more comprehensive than most.

I have seen your statement before - too true - but they always leave out the various wars with indigenous peoples -

interesting though horrifying to note how we move so seamlessly from one to the next taking our war crimes and torture with us. Of course these predate the actual foundation of the country.

For instance, it was under General Miles of "Indian genocide that we took torture international to the Philippnes

[Enthusiast]

19. Lincoln fought in the Black Hawk War. Well, at least he was along for the ride.

[Telcontar]

21. Spent his time lifting whiskey barrels over his head and

wrestling with his men.

[Bragi]

11. America glorifies anyone wearing a uniform

I'm sure if there were still uniformed milkmen around, there'd be a special day to honour their bravery and sacrifice.

[Comrade Grumpy]

28. We must support our returning heroic milkmen!

[pinboy3niner]

29. Some of them are downright Adohrable! nt

[olddots]

14. lets honor our proud forces at Arbys ,Sonic and Taco Bell

Sounds absurd but we have all helped it to get this bad .

[Enthusiast]

20. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!

"It is a sickness that inhabits our land."

[99Forever]

22. My thoughts exactly, and I've thought so...

... for a very long time. Certainly long before this movie glorifying this monster's murderous life was made.

America has lost it's conscience.

[mstinamotorcity2]

23. They glorify it

because weapons designers and manufacturers and military contractors get paid handsomely. war is big business gone amuck.

[brush]

26. "War is a Racket" by General Smedley Butler . . .

lays it all out.

Profits go up exponentially for companies that supply the military during wars — 1000 fold or more is not unheard of.

That is one BIG reason why war is constantly advocated for, and why movies like "American Sniper" are put out to "brainwash" the next generation of impressionable young minds to fight in them.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. Now, if they could only figure out a way to win a war to justify the bragging.

Wellll....there was the Glorious victory over Mighty Grenada...

[KingCharlemagne]

25. The Rude Pundit said it best yesterday:

American Sniper is a film about stupid people who were brainwashed into doing something stupid and it justifies their stupidity so that the stupid people watching can feel good about themselves. See, the one thing you can't separate out from the film is history. It tries to elide over history, but just because it isn't mentioned doesn't mean it isn't there. Because of that, the overwhelming feeling the Rude Pundit had was pity, not pride.

. . . .

It's not the film that tells us it's nothing. We know it was for nothing. We know that one of the great crimes of the new century is the invasion of Iraq for absolutely no rational, demonstrable reason. We know that all those "savages," as Kyle calls the Iraqis, that we killed were for nothing. We know that all those Americans who died lost their lives for nothing. Our military was protecting us from nothing. Our freedoms weren't at risk from Iraq.

And the lie many soldiers from Iraq cling to and the lie we tell ourselves, and the lie that so many have worked so hard to maintain, is that as long as we don't discuss that it was for nothing, as long as we pretend that the fact that soldiers fought when they were told to fight and, mostly, did so nobly, we don't have to face the truly gut-wrenching reality of our national complicity in the crime.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2015/01/i-dont-give-fuck-its-your-house.html#sthash.HPtMKsvs.dpuf

Damn, I wish i could write like that.