I hadn’t planned on seeing American Sniper, the story of the late Chris Kyle, but with it shattering box office records and driving the Left insane, something that director Clint Eastwood has been doing effortlessly for the past four decades, I will have to go see it this weekend and review it for TAC. Awarded two Silver Stars and numerous other decorations, Navy Seal Kyle always stated that his motivation for being perhaps the deadliest sniper in American history was to protect his fellow troops. This resonated with me since it was the same motivation for Corporal Alvin C. York in 1918 during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive to take out several German machine gun nests and to capture 132 German soldiers:
The paradox of war for any good man who fights in one: taking lives to save lives. I will report back as to whether the film American Sniper is successful in addressing this paradox.
From a Wall Street Journal letter to the editor some years past: “Where do we find these young men? They grow here, somehow unchanged by the skeptics and cynics all around them. In an instant they make decisions of such gravity that all else seems irrelevant and minimized. How do we deserve these young men? We support them. We honor them. We remember their sacrifice. We win this war.”
Jim Gribbel
Freeport, Maine
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Medal of Honor Citation, YORK, ALVIN C.
“Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, Company G, 328th Infantry, 82d Division. […] After his platoon had suffered heavy casualties and 3 other noncommissioned officers had become casualties, Cpl. York assumed command. Fearlessly leading 7 men, he charged with great daring a machinegun nest which was pouring deadly and incessant fire upon his platoon. In this heroic feat the machine gun nest was taken, together with 4 officers and 128 men and several guns.”
Laurence Stallings’ book, The Doughboys, contains a detailed description of the action. It’s many years. As I remember, at one point Cpl. York’s M1911 .45 cal. was out of ammunition so he dangled the pistol on his little finger, and “touched off” Huns with a M1903 .30 cal. Springfield rifle.
The “National Review Online” link you provided is unreal. The left would feel better if the lovely child murdering Islamist we’re in our streets screaming Allah is God and beheading your neighbor. The pathetic reviews from the left assure me that our national security is undermined and will be so as long as the democrats continue it’s practice of sniffing glue and telling you how to embrace multiculturalism in the face of terrorism. ( rant ends. )
I love our country and the brave young men and women who keep at bay the filthy pigs that wish to kill us. I abhor the left. Never forget 9-11, USS Cole and the 17 in Paris. When the heads start to roll down 5th Ave. in NY city, then these tasteless reviews from traitors might cease.
….then they will pray for good American snipers! Ok. Rant is finally over.
Saw it… wonderful movie about a genuine hero. Long overdue positive portrayal of an American fighting man with no moral ambiguity about his duty.
Highly recommended, not just because it drives the Left nuts to see the military portrayed in a positive manner (though that made it even sweeter).
What’s been said is true, at the end of the movie, there was total silence in the crowded theater, a silence of reverence for the life of this American hero.
Those who sent the child to do a man’s job are the most responsible for the child’s death. The child is truly collateral damage. He would have died from the explosives he was delivering. This frequently happened in Viet Nam, where a child, usually a girl, was wired with explosives and sent into the G.I. camps. The soldiers embraced her and died and she with them. Nice people, Huh?
Stop hero worshipping this bloodthirsty psychopath! Gosh I can’t stand living in this country!
Don’t let the door hit you on your way out of America JJ.