The Real American Sniper: Why Chris Kyle Wasn’t A Hero

The following words are not meant to spit on the grave of Chris Kyle, but rather address a reality that may be unpleasant for many to hear. Chris Kyle was not a hero. He did not protect America or keep it safe. He killed a lot. He also, apparently, lied a lot as well. Sometimes truth lies beyond the lens of star-spangled glasses and once you have the courage to look beyond a constructed work of fiction, you may realize that the facts do not align with your belief system. It may not be easy, but sometimes the truth is harsh. If we, as a people are genuinely in pursuit of truth and the justice that follows, we must distance ourselves from the warm feelings that certain narratives provide and search objectively without the blinders that provide us comfort.

Kyle’s story takes place in Iraq, his weapon and astute aim followed along with him. The former Navy SEAL and bronco rider was responsible for 160 confirmed deaths – 255 if you include unconfirmed kills – while he was stationed in the land that was once ancient Babylon. How can it be said that a single person he killed was on behalf of protecting the American way of life or its freedoms when Iraq nor its people were ever a threat to either? Kyle was a member of an invading force. To protect someone or something, an outside threat must first be made, otherwise what is labeled as protector is actually an aggressor.

No matter your thoughts surrounding the events on 9/11, one thing that is for certain is that Iraq was not involved. Saddam Hussein never attacked the United States, nor did it appear that he ever had plans to do so. Hussein’s regime, although not innocent of crimes in its own country, was not a threat to the United States or its citizens. And despite the Bush administration’s assertion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, they didn’t.

It may be brutal to hear, but the facts dictate that none of the people that Chris Kyle killed were a threat to America, its freedoms, or its way of life.

So who or what was the Texan protecting?

<snip>

American Sniper, the movie based on his words, makes Kyle appear as if he was conflicted by the scores who were killed by his marksmanship. Unfortunately for his legacy, his actual words tell a different story.

“I wondered, how would I feel about killing someone? Now I know. It’s no big deal”

Another quote from Kyle’s book describes his thoughts on the Iraqi people,

“Savage, despicable evil. That’s what we were fighting in Iraq. That’s why a lot of people, myself included, called the enemy ‘savages’…. I only wish I had killed more.”

The sniper also described his chosen profession of killing by saying,

“You do it until there’s no one left to kill. That’s what war is. I loved what I did… I’m not lying or exaggerating to say it was fun.”

Kyle also relays his lack of regret by saying,

“There’s another question people ask a lot: Did it bother you killing so many people in Iraq? I tell them ‘No.’ And I mean it.”


As far as the moral ambiguity that he dealt with, Kyle said

“I have a strong sense of justice. It’s pretty much black-and-white. I don’t see too much gray.”

The last passage from American Sniper that I will list truly demonstrates Kyle’s lack of heroism:

“A teenager, I’d guess about fifteen, sixteen, appeared on the street and squared up with an AK-47 to fire at them. I dropped him. A minute or two later, an Iraqi woman came running up, saw him on the ground, and tore off her clothes. She was obviously his mother. I’d see the families of the insurgents display their grief, tear off clothes, even rub the blood on themselves. If you loved them, I thought, you should have kept them away from the war. You should have kept them from joining the insurgency.”

The insurgency that the sniper is referring to is the local Iraqi insurgency that would have never existed if the United States hadn’t invaded Iraq to begin with. These “insurgents” weren’t making their way overseas to hurt Kyle’s family, so where does his malice towards the child he killed in cold blood come from?

more: http://theantimedia.org/the-real-american-sniper/

Doesn't it just warm your heart that Conservatives/Republicans SUDDENLY care about the French?

Not only that. They SUDDENLY care about the elderly when discussing ACA. They SUDDENLY care about the debt when the topic of raising the minimum wage or salaries in general are discussed. They SUDDENLY support unions when the NYPD threw a hissy fit over the Mayor who happens to be a Democrat.

Why, it's just so heart warming isn't it?

Charlie Hebdo attack a ‘windfall’ for far right, French Muslims say

Muslim community leaders in France described Wednesday’s attack on weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo as “a veritable windfall for extreme-right parties,” condemning the shooting that killed 12 people as “an attack on French Muslims” as well as their non-Muslim compatriots.

Masked gunmen stormed the newspaper's offices, firing automatic weapons and killing 12 people. During the assault they were heard to shout "Allahu Akbar" — Arabic for God is great, and the act has been described by French authorities as an act of "terrorism.”

“This is a veritable nightmare for the Muslim community, but a veritable windfall for the extreme-right parties that will exploit this appalling crime,” Houria Bouteldja, spokeswoman for Parti des Indigènes de la République (PIR) — a political party representing the interests of people from many of France’s predominantly Muslim former colonies in Africa and elsewhere.

“The people who committed this crime have committed a crime not only against Charlie Hebdo, but also against the Muslim community,” Bouteldja said. While PIR opposes the newspaper’s caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, and said the paper has been “obsessed with Islam and Islamism for years,” the party aims to battle what it calls Islamophobic cartoons “on the political plain” and not through violence.

The assault on Charlie Hebdo “enable people to attack Muslims,” said another PIR member and French Muslim community leader, Youssef Boussoumah.

France’s rising far-right party, Front National and several obvious DU trolls, quickly condemned the attack Wednesday but also expressed concern that French Muslims pose a national security threat.

more: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/1/7/charlie-hebdo-muslim.html

Meanwhile in the USA: Explosion outside NAACP in Colorado deliberate, FBI says

An explosion outside an NAACP office building in Colorado on Tuesday morning that rattled neighbors was caused deliberately, officials say.

An improvised explosive device was detonated against the exterior wall of the NAACP building on South El Paso Street in Colorado Springs around 10:45 a.m. Mountain time. No one was injured, said Amy Sanders, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Denver.

A gasoline can had been placed near the device but did not ignite during the explosion, Sanders said.

The sidewalk and the local NAACP headquarters building, which also houses a barbershop, suffered minor damage, she said.

FBI Denver and the Colorado Springs Police Department are on the scene. A man aged about 40 is a person of interest in the investigation. He may be driving a 2000 or older-model dirty white pick-up truck with paneling, a dark-colored bed liner, an open tailgate and a missing or covered license plate.

more: http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-explosion-rocks-naacp-building-in-colorado-20150106-story.html

For the Johann Sebastian Bach fans. Concertos For Oboe & Oboe D'Amore

I just came upon these in a random search... I never heard and are they ever lovely...

Let me know what you think?

Why don't you ever hear good cops denounce bad cops?

Say? If policing is so dangerous why don't cops quit and look for safer jobs?

The insubordinate NYPD officers should be fired and their fans banned from DU

Happy Monday!