At Waging Nonviolence, Brock McIntosh writes
As a veteran, I see ‘American Sniper’ as dangerous, but not for the reasons you’d think. An excerpt:
After watching the movie “American Sniper,” I called a friend named Garett Reppenhagen who was an American sniper in Iraq. He deployed with a cavalry scout unit from 2004 to 2005 and was stationed near FOB Warhorse. I asked him if he thought this movie really mattered. “Every portrayal of a historical event should be historically accurate,” he explained. ”A movie like this is a cultural symbol that influences the way people remember history and feel about war.”
Garett and I met through our antiwar and veteran support work, which he’s been involved with for almost a decade. He served in Iraq. I served in Afghanistan. But both of us know how powerful mass media and mass culture are. They shaped how we thought of the wars when we joined, so we felt it was important to tell our stories when we came home and spoke out.
I commend Chris Kyle for telling his story in his book “American Sniper.” The scariest thing I did while in the military was come home and tell my story to the public — the good, the bad and the ugly. I feel that veterans owe it to society to tell their stories, and civilians owe it to veterans to actively listen. Dr. Ed Tick, a psychotherapist who has specialized in veteran care for four decades, explains, “In all traditional and classical societies, returned warriors served many important psychosocial functions. They were keepers of dark wisdom for their cultures, witnesses to war’s horrors from personal experience who protected and discouraged, rather than encouraged, its outbreak again.”
Chris Kyle didn’t view Iraq like me and Garett, but neither of us have attacked him for it. He’s not the problem. We don’t care about the lies that Chris Kyle may or may not have told. They don’t matter. We care about the lies that Chris Kyle believed. The lie that Iraq was culpable for September 11. The lie that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The lie that people do evil things because they are evil.
The film “American Sniper” is also rife with lies. This was not Chris Kyle’s story. And Bradley Cooper was not Chris Kyle. It was Jason Hall’s story, a one-time actor in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and screenwriter for “American Sniper,” who called his film a “character study.” Don’t believe him. His movie is as fictional as Buffy Summers.
In the movie’s first scene, Cooper faces a moral dilemma that never happened in real life. Cooper suspects a boy is preparing to send an improvised explosive device, or IED, toward a convoy of approaching Marines on the streets of Fallujah. Either he kills a child or the child kills Marines. A soldier next to Cooper warns, “They’ll send your ass to Leavenworth if you’re wrong.” In writing this line, Hall implies that killing civilians is a war crime and U.S. military members are sent to prison for it. If U.S. soldiers, including Kyle, don’t seem to be getting punished for killing civilians, then they must not be killing civilians.
Garett and I agreed that even if that boy was a civilian, nothing would have happened to Cooper for shooting him. Both of us were trained to take detailed notes with the understanding that if something went wrong, it would be corrected in the report. Americans were responsible for thousands of Iraqi deaths and almost none were held accountable.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—Shelby's hold: Who would benefit?:
Yesterday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell took to the floor of the U.S. Senate to block the confirmation process for all Obama administration appointees. McConnell said he was acting on behalf of Alabama GOP Senator Richard Shelby. Shelby's goal: force the administration to deliver a giant defense contract for aerial tankers to the European aerospace giant EADS, which would assemble the tankers in Alabama.
So who stands to benefit from Shelby's hold if he gets his way?
You won't be surprised to learn that it turns out Shelby has received a mountain of cash from both EADS and EADS' domestic partner on the aerial tanker bid, Northrop Grumman. According to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity, Northrop Grumman has contributed more than $ 100,000 from its political action committee to Shelby during his four terms in the U.S. Senate. Moreover, Shelby has received contributions directly from top officials of both EADS and Northrop Grumman and his former legislative director now lobbies for EADS.
Tweet of the Day
In a survey of middle school American children, 92% were able to name 20 celebrities but failed to name 10 countries.
— @Alberthakho
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show: the Utah state legislature has selected its commemorative firearm for the 2015 session, and... the Utah state legislature issues commemorative firearms!
Greg Dworkin has another roundup of the day's top vaccination news, including the reversal of Autism Speaks. In 2016 news, Rand Paul hires yet another controversial aide, Scott Walker breaks out (but weirdly embroils himself in a manufactured state issue), Jeb wrestles with the pandering mandate, and Jindal's health care idea bombs.
Armando joins in for an extended discussion of the many, many dangers inherent in SCOTUS consideration of
King v. Burwell.
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