American Sniper is Rife With Lies

7/18/2019 American Sniper is Rife With Lies

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SATURDAY, FEB 7, 2015 09:00 PM M

I’m a U.S. veteran, and “AmericanSniper” is rife with lies

Clint Eastwood's film is propagandistic fiction

masquerading as a “true story." Here's why it's so

dangerous

BROCK MCINTOSH, WAGING NONVIOLENCE

Bradley Cooper in "American Sniper"(Credit: Warner Bros. Entertainment)

This piece originally appeared onWaging Nonviolence.

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.”

http://www.salon.com/writer/brock_mcintosh/

http://wagingnonviolence.org/

http://wagingnonviolence.org/

http://www.salon.com/writer/brock_mcintosh/



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 storieswhen 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.

During one incident in Iraq, Garett was involved in a firefight that left six to seven

civilians dead. He received his orders from an intelligence officer who got hisintelligence wrong. He led Garett and a small convoy to an Iraqi deputy governor’s

compound, which was supposedly under attack. As the convoy approached, the

soldiers spotted a cluster of trucks with armed Iraqis. The armed Iraqis saw the

American convoy inching closer, but they didn’t fire. It seemed obvious to Garett that

these Iraqis were not who the intelligence officer was looking for. Then the officer

screamed, “Fire!” Confused, no one in the convoy pulled their triggers. “I said fire

goddamn it!” Someone fired, and all hell broke loose. In the ensuing chaos, one of

the Iraqi trucks struck a civilian seeking cover on the sidewalk. As it turned out, those

armed Iraqis were the deputy governor’s own security detail. The officer didn’t go to

Leavenworth.

In Hall and Cooper’s Fallujah, it’s as if the Americans just found a city that was

already laid to waste. The movie leaves out America’s bombardment of Fallujah. An

officer explains that the city has been evacuated, so any military-aged male

remaining must be an insurgent. Conveniently, every Iraqi that Cooper kills happens

to be carrying a rifle or burying an IED, even though the real Chris Kyle wrote that he

was told to shootanymilitary-aged male. Obviously, every non-insurgent did notevacuate Fallujah.



“Many Iraqis didn’t have cars or other transportation,” Garett explained. “To get to the

nearest town, you’d have to walk across very hot desert, and you wouldn’t be able to

carry much. So a lot of residents just decided to stay indoors and wait it out. It’d be

like telling people in San Antonio that they have to walk to El Paso; then they come

back home and their city is bombed and contaminated with depleted uranium.”

So what brought Bradley Cooper’s character to Iraq? Early in the film, Hall sets the

stage for the moral theme of the movie. When Cooper was a child he sat at a kitchen

table with his father, who explained that there are only three types of people in the

world: sheep who believe “evil doesn’t exist,” wolves who prey on the sheep, and

sheepdogs who are “blessed with aggression” and protect the sheep. In this world,

when Cooper watches the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings on television, there is only

one explanation: just evil wolves being evil. So he joins the military. When Cooperwatches September 11 on television, there is one explanation: just evil wolves being

evil. So he goes to war with them.

Amazingly, Hall and Cooper’s war seems to have absolutely nothing to do with

weapons of mass destruction. It’s about al-Qaida, which in real life followed the

United States into Iraq after we invaded. Cooper’s war also seems to have nothing to

do with helping Iraqis, only killing them. Except for the military’s interpreters, every

Iraqi in the movie — including the women and children — are either evil, butchering

insurgents or collaborators. The sense is that there isn’t a single innocent Iraqi in thewar. They’re all “savages.”

Finally, it seems that a voice of criticism will be heard through the character of Marc

Lee. When Lee voices his skepticism, Cooper asks, “Do you want them to attack San

Diego or New York?” Cooper somehow wins with that absurd question. Later in the

film, Navy SEAL Ryan Job is shot in the face. Distraught, Cooper decides he should

lead a group of SEALs back out to avenge Job’s death, which is portrayed as the

heroic thing to do. While Lee and Cooper are clearing a building, an Iraqi sniper

shoots Lee in the head. The audience is then at Lee’s funeral, where his mother is

reading the last letter that Lee sent home expressing criticism of the war. On the road

home, Cooper’s wife asks him what he thought about the letter. “That letter killed

Marc,” Cooper responds. “He let go, and he paid the price for it.” What makes Cooper

a hero, according to the film, is that he’s a sheepdog. In Jason Hall’s world, Lee stops

being a sheepdog when he questions his actions in Iraq. He becomes a sheep, “and

he paid the price for it” with a bullet from a wolf.

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Hall claims his film is a character study, yet he shamelessly butchered Marc Lee’s

real story (and part of Kyle’s) to promote his moral fantasy world and deny legitimacy

to veterans critical of the war. Here’s the truth: On the day that the real Ryan Job was

shot, the real Marc Lee died after stepping into the line of fire twice to save Job’s life,

which apparently was either not “sheepdog” enough to portray accurately in the

movie or would have taken the focus off of Cooper’s reckless heroics. You can’t have

people believe that critical soldiers are actually not sheep, can you? And as it turns

out, Kyle never said those things about Lee’s letter and never blamed Lee for his own

death for being skeptical of the war. (Here is Marc Lee’sactual last letter home in

full.)

Chris Kyle was like so many soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He

believed in doing the right thing and was willing to give his life for it. That trait thatdrives many veterans is a truly special one I wish we all had. Was Kyle wrong that the

Iraq War had anything to do with September 11, protecting Americans, seizing

weapons of mass destruction, or liberating Iraqis? Without a doubt. But that’s what he

was told and he genuinely believed it — an important insight into how good people

are driven to work for bad causes. Was Kyle wrong for calling Iraqis “savages”? Of

course. In one interview, he admits that Iraqis probably view him as a “savage,” but

that in war he needed to dehumanize people to kill them — another important insight

into how humans tolerate killing, which was left out of the movie.

So enough about Chris Kyle. Let’s talk about Cooper and Hall, and the culture

industry that recycles propagandistic fiction under the guise of a “true story.” And let’s

focus our anger and our organizing against the authorities and the institutions that

craft the lies that the Chris Kyles of the world believe, that have created a trail of

blowback leading from dumb war to dumb war, and that have sent 2.5 million

veterans to fight a “war on terror” that persists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and

Pakistan. Critics and nonviolent organizers can be sheepdogs too.

http://americasmightywarriors.org/_a/marcs-last-letter-home/

Glory is something that some men chase and others find themselves stumbling upon, not

expecting it to find them. Either way it is a noble gesture that one finds bestowed upon them.

My question is when does glory fade away and become a wrongful crusade, or an unjustified

means by which consumes one completely?










have seen war. have seen death, the sorrow that encompasses your entire being as a man

breathes his last. can only pray and hope that none of you will ever have to experience some

of these things have seen and felt here.

have felt fear and have felt adrenaline pump through my veins ma!ing me seem invincible.

will be honest and say that some of the things have seen here are unjustified and uncalled for.

"owever for the most part we are helping this country. t will ta!e more years than most expect,

but we will get raq to stand on its own feet.

Most of what have seen here will never really mention or spea! of, only due to the nature of

those involved. have seen a man give his food to a hungry child and family. #oday saw a

hospital that most of us would refuse to receive treatment from. #he filth and smell would allow

most of us to not be able to stand to enter, let alone get medicine from. "owever you will be

relieved to !now that coalition forces have started to provide security for and supply medicine

and equipment to help aid in the cause.

have seen ama$ing things happen here% however have seen the sad part of war too. have

seen the morals of a man who cares nothing of human life& have seen hate towards a nation's

people who has never committed a wrong, except being born of a third world, ill educated and

ignorant to western civili$ation. t is not everybody who feels this way only a select few but it

brings questions to mind. s it o! for one to consider themselves superior to another race?

(urprising we are not a stranger to this sort of attitude. Meaning that in our own country we

discriminate against someone for what nationality they are, their education level, their social

status. )e distinguish our role models as multimillion dollar sports heroes or talented actors

and actress who complain about not getting millions of dollars more then they are currently

getting paid.

*ur country is a great country, don't get me wrong on this, otherwise none of us would be

living there. My point of this is how can we come over here and help a less than fortunate

country without holding contempt or hate towards them if we can't do it in our country. try to

do my part over here, but the truth is over there, +nited (tates, do nothing but ta!e.

s! yourself when was the last time you donated clothes that you hadn't worn out. )hen was

the last time you paid for a random stranger's cup of coffee, meal or maybe even a tan! of gas?

)hen was the last time you helped a person with the groceries into or out of their car?

#hin! to yourself and wonder what it would feel li!e if when the bill for the meal came and you

were told it was already paid for.



More random acts of !indness li!e this would change our country and our reputation as a

country.

t is not un!nown to most of us that the rest of the world loo!s at us with doubt towards our

humanity and morals.

am not here to preach or to say loo! at me, because am just as at fault as the next person.

find that being here ma!es me reali$e the great country we have and the obligation we have to

!eep it that way.

#he -th has just come and gone and received many emails than!ing me for helping !eep

merica great and free. ta!e no credit for the career path have chosen% can only give it to

those of you who are reading this, because each one of you has contributed to me and who

am.

"owever what do over here is only a small percent of what !eeps our country great. thin! the

truth to our greatness is each other. urity, morals and !indness, passed down to each

generation through example. (o to all my family and friends, do me a favor and pass on the

!indness, the love, the precious gift of human life to each other so that when your

children come into contact with a great conflict that we are now faced with here in raq, that

they are people of humanity, of pure motives, of compassion.

#his is our real part to !eep merica free/ "0 -th 1ove 0a

Marc 1ee

.(. "alf way through the deployment can't wait to see all of your faces

American Sniper is Rife With Lies

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