Quote :

Washington (AFP) - Clint Eastwood's hit film "American Sniper" has reignited a bitter debate about the US invasion of Iraq and one of its most famous warriors, with conservatives hailing the movie as a long overdue tribute to veterans.
Critics on the left have slammed the popular film as an attempt to whitewash the history of the American occupation of Iraq and say the subject of the movie, former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, deserves no hero treatment for his handiwork as a deadly sniper.
Directed by Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper, the film has broken box office records and is based on Kyle's best-selling memoir, in which he expressed no regrets for the lives he extinguished as a sharpshooter in the war.
The right-leaning National Review called the film a "cultural moment."
"The movie gives America something it's lacked since the start of the war -- a war hero on a truly national, cultural scale," David French wrote.
The film has been nominated for six Oscars, including for best film and best actor. And both Eastwood and Cooper insist their movie is not meant to deliver any political message.
Cooper said that "for me, and for Clint, this movie was always a character study about what the plight is for a soldier."
But a war of words has erupted over the movie and its protagonist, exposing polarized views of the country's wars since 9/11.
Filmmaker Michael Moore created a firestorm when he appeared to dismiss the movie, tweeting snipers were "cowards."
"My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren’t heroes," he wrote.
Actor Seth Rogen, whose recent movie "The Interview" provoked fury from North Korea and a cyber attack on Sony Pictures, said "American Sniper" reminded him of the Nazi propaganda movie that appears at the end of Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds."
-- Hollywood leftists -
Conservatives and a slew of celebrities quickly shot back at Moore and Rogen on social media, with former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin castigating "Hollywood leftists."
"God bless our troops, especially our snipers," she wrote.
Moore and other critics of the film were not "fit to shine Chris Kyle's combat boots."
Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, wrote that Moore should spend a few weeks with ISIS and Boko Haram."

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


What do you think of snipers?
Are they heroes?
Are they cowards?
Do you think that being a sniper is something that someone should be proud of?

Depends on the circumstances if it's to say protect people that are being held hostage in say a bank or cafe or something then it's a good idea, however I don't believe in violence

BIG FUCKING DEAL!
People make a fuss over the story of a mans life. If they don't like what snipers do (or what he did), then don't watch it or read up on his life. That's war and that's life.

Personally, I want to watch the movie, but I have to wait until I'm less weepy. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and her Mr are going to watch it this weekend and I can't wait to hear what they think.

What the fuck! I watched this movie and while rough to watch and seeing the horrors, it was a great movie. It was a well done movie on his life in the seals and out and the struggles he went through. I couldn't pull my eyes from the movie I was so hooked and glued. As for having no regrets, if I was a Navy seals sniper protecting and watching out for my men and getting rid of evil people I would have no regrets either. It's not like he was killing innocent people and tallying them off. He was killing ignorant evil people. He also was being attacked by evIL humans as well and defending himself.

I haven't watched the movie and most likely won't, nor do I know about his story really so I have no opinion on him, this movie or his story in particular.  But I will say that being a sniper isn't as honorable as the people who fight in hand to hand combat.  Anyone can sit at a distance with a highly technological weapon and just pick people off.  I don't think that they are necessarily cowards though before someone implies that, it takes courage to go into any war, every soldier whether they are in an honorable war or not is courageous because they go into it knowing that they might die.  I'm just saying that the men and women who are on the battle fields and put themselves on the front lines and into the sight of opposing forces to achieve the goal of their missions are the truly honorable soldiers.  They are the heroes, and they have more courage then snipers do.

Don't like snipers, don't watch the damn movie! I believe they are doing their jobs and if it saves others lives, all the more reason to support them! I want to watch this movie!!

I want to add something. I think that Snipers can be just as honorable as the men on the front line. Just because they're not right out in the front, doesn't mean they're not watching backs or taking dangerous risks on solo or team missions. I was just reading up on this before I left my first reply because I knew very little about snipers and wanted to know more about how they worked.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions but mine doesn't change by any means :)

Quote :

Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, wrote that Moore should spend a few weeks with ISIS and Boko Haram.”
Former soldiers have tended to give it high marks, and some veterans groups helped organize special early screenings of the movie for veterans.
But at least one US Marine who fought in Iraq ten years ago was not impressed.
“I didn’t like it,” said Caputi, 30, who spent seven months in Anbar province in 2004-05.
“It presents a very sanitized picture of what the occupation of Iraq was like and the nature of the Iraqi resistance,” he told AFP.
He said Iraqis are given no voice in the film, and there is no attempt to explain why they may have resented foreign troops on their soil.
Instead of the black-and-white picture painted in the film, he said the war looked “extremely gray” to him at the time.
“I stopped believing in good guys and bad guys because of my experience in Iraq,” Caputi said.
In his memoir, Kyle — a Texan and former professional rodeo rider — expressed only pride about his war record and his targeting of what he called “savages.”
He is believed to have taken out 255 people with his rifle, and the Pentagon officially credited Kyle with 160 confirmed kills — making him the deadliest sniper in American military history.
Kyle was killed on February 2, 2013 by a former US soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress, who is due to be tried next month.
Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq war veteran and head of the Iraq Afghanistan Veterans of America, said the movie reflected how many soldiers thought about the war.
“Kyle, much like many I served with, and our president himself during most of the Iraq War, held a very black-and-white view of the conflict. We were right, they were wrong,” Rieckhoff wrote in Variety.
The movie does not attempt to address the political “complexity” of the conflict, he said, but it may help civilians grasp the risks and anxieties faced by the small number of Americans who volunteer for military service, he said.
The movie will “haunt” civilians who see it. “For a long time,” he wrote. “And force more questions than answers. Just like the war has for us.”

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


I found more to this article, this is the second half of it.

I will only say one thing.  Beth you said that they are doing their jobs and saving lives and that is just more reason to support them.  But what about all of the innocent lives that have been lost in that war?  They took as many innocent people as they did ones that were believed to be guilty.

I agree [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. The fact he "has no regrets for the lives he extinguished" is sad and scary. I'm not a soldier, I could be never be a soldier. I have respect for our military as a whole, but cannot understand that statement. As far as a sniper being a coward? I believe that strategically they have a job. They are utilized for the purpose they are trained. Any soldier, in war, is brave to me.

I think they are just as honorable because they are the eyes for the men and women on the ground. The ones on the ground in mission may not see imposing danger that a sniper will see.

However I think war in general there are innocent lives lost as guilty lives. I do not support innocent lives being lost. I also support all men/women in the military nobody what their title is. I know I would never be able to do or go through what they do daily.