Just watched "American Sniper"

[Jim]

 
No wonder the Left don't want to see it...

[takncarabizniz]

I have it on my list...also waiting on Unbroken and hoping it's as good as the book was.

[hoosier_daddy]

looks like a great movie from the previews i have seen.  bradley cooper's accent and attitude seem perfect.  they sure took liberties with the real sniper guy, but that's hollywood for ya. 

[DaBoz]

Haven't seen it yet but played every FPS and a sniper is my favorite.

[willam]

My daughter and I went to American Sniper. We sat in our seats afterward and didn't speak.

On the way home we both agreed this movie is necessary viewing.

Important FOR EVERY ADULT AMERICAN to be mindful of - what we ask of our U.S. Military members.

Chris Kyle - only did his job. Commendably.

[hoosier_daddy]

no. not true.  he looted iraqi homes after they had been killed.  that is bullshit.  that is not their job.  and he was sick enough to say killing iraqis was fun.  he was in their country, hiding from far away, shooting them for rising up against foreign invaders.  sure, it was his job.  but it sure should not have been fun.  we should not have been there.  period. 

[willam]

He performed the duties of a U.S. Miltary sniper. He did not loot. He did not engage in any unlawful conduct.

You don't "like" the JOB American snipers are required to do - too bad for you.

Chris Kyle was ONLY doing his job. Performing the duties of a sniper - while protecting American troops - and saving their lives. Along with protecting and saving the lives of Afghan soldiers serving alongside American troops, too.

All he did was his job. And he did it all commendably.

[hoosier_daddy]

you are a liar.  in his own book kyle admits he looted the homes of iraqis HE WAS USING AS A PLACE TO HIDE IN AND SHOOT IRAQI'S FROM.  you should learn to know what the hell you are talking about BEFORE you make a fool out of yourself all the time.  HE ADMITTED DOING THIS IN HIS BOOK.  get it?

On home leave from Iraq, he gets a tattoo of “a crusader cross” on the front of one arm—inadvertently fulfilling Al Qaeda’s principal stereotype of Americans. “I wanted everyone to know I was a Christian. I had it put in red, for blood.” Offhandedly, he adds: “I hated the damn savages I’d been fighting.”


“Savage, despicable evil. That’s what we were fighting in Iraq,” he writes after describing his first kill, a woman who walked into a street with a grenade in her hand as marines advanced into her village. After a moment’s hesitation, he drops her with a shot.


“That’s why a lot of people, myself included, called the enemy ‘savages,’” he writes of this scene. “There really was no other way to describe what we encountered there.”


Well, yes, of course there is. In the first weeks following the air strikes and invasion, many Iraqis, despite their loathing for Saddam Hussein, rose up against the Americans until the insurgency proved hopeless. Later, sullen, disenfranchised, and unemployed Sunnis picked up the fight, and so did nationalistic and pro-Iranian Shiites. Then came Al Qaeda’s ruthless kidnappers and suicide bombers, determined to kill Americans at all costs. Then we paid the Sunnis who had been killing us to kill them.


Many insurgents, of course, found succor among Iraqis whose homes had been evacuated, destroyed, or looted by the Americans. That’s why, after the marines evicted 250 people from an apartment complex on the edge of Fallujah, Kyle set up his sniper nest in one of the top apartments to target insurgents from above.


But despite his firsthand, multitour exposure to the conflict, Kyle seems oblivious to the notion that such tactics can be self-defeating. “To me, the home I was in was just another part of the battlefield,” he breezily observes. “The apartments and everything in them were just things to be used to accomplish our goal—clearing the city.” He even put a baby crib “to good use” as a rifle platform. Then he started “rummaging through the complex to see if I could find any cool shit—money, guns, explosives. The only thing I found worth acquisitioning was a handheld Tiger Woods game.”

[sweetwater5s9]

Kyle set up his sniper nest in one of the top apartments to target insurgents from above.

“To me, the home I was in was just another part of the battlefield,” he breezily observes. “The apartments and everything in them were just things to be used to accomplish our goal—clearing the city.” He even put a baby crib “to good use” as a rifle platform. Then he started “rummaging through the complex to see if I could find any guns, explosives. The only thing I found worth acquisition was a handheld Tiger Woods game.”

The Vietnam War’s most famous sniper, marine gunnery sergeant Carlos Hathcock, once said he agreed with Ernest Hemingway’s observation that “certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for anything else thereafter.”

"But I never did enjoy killing anybody. It’s my job. If I don’t get those bastards, then they’re gonna kill a lot of these kids dressed up like Marines. That’s the way I look at it.”

At a minimum, history suggests life is not kind to military snipers. Nightmares, alcoholism, bar fights, car accidents, and jail stints litter their civilian records.   Of course, hundreds, maybe even thousands, of American snipers have gone on to crime-free, even happy lives after hanging up their scopes.

Kyle was shot and wounded twice while in Iraq and caught in IED (Improvised Explosive Device) explosions on 6 separate occasions. For his actions overseas, Kyle was awarded two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars, and a host of other decorations. He rose quickly in the ranks, eventually attaining the rank of Chief Petty Officer before separating from the Navy in 2009 to spend more time with his family.

[hoosier_daddy]

kyle said shooting them was fun.  deal with it. 

[sweetwater5s9]

Saving lives can be fun.   Depends on how you define 'fun"?   Kyle certainly was not an English major by any means...

Kyle was shot and wounded twice while in Iraq and caught in IED (Improvised Explosive Device) explosions on 6 separate occasions. For his actions overseas, Kyle was awarded two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars, and a host of other decorations. He rose quickly in the ranks, eventually attaining the rank of Chief Petty Officer before separating from the Navy in 2009 to spend more time with his family.

Deal with it...

[willam]

He admits to looting and you condemn HIS WORK? Come on, Hoosier.

You cannot suggest he didn't perform his work duties with efficienty and proficiency - because he did.

He excelled at it. American troops depended on his calm, cool proficiency as a sniper - U.S. Military superiors needed him backing the troops on the front line up - saving their lives and saving the lives of Afghan troops too.

You appear to have read his book and been clueless as to what he did for a living. He was a sharp shooter and indeed did perform the duties of his job.

Enjoying one's work means the same thing to a sharp shooter/sniper during war time as it does to a police officer stateside who might end up killing someone any day at any time and their proficiency as a sharp shooter means the difference between keeping people safe or people dying. No one faults a police officer for loving their job too. Our police save lives ON THE JOB, too. Just like Chris Kyle did. Every single day.

Go back and read the parts where he trained and was tested and was called to duty as a sniper - over and over and over.

Praises are due to him - because of the American troop lives - he saved. They live on - as a testament of how good he was at his job as a U.S. Military sniper. Unapologetically.