“An American hero, he is a psychopath patriot and we love him.” Bill Maher on the portrayal of Chris Kyle in CLINT Eastwood ‘s movie American Sniper.
There is of course, as in all movies, a big difference between the real character and the on screen character. In this movie Clint Eastwood added a bit of ambiguity to the issue of killing some 250 humans and of war itself. By a bit of ambiguity I mean just enough for Eastwood to make the spurious argument to an empty chair that his movie was not an American propaganda piece glorifying the Bush/Cheney Iraq war and a celebration of guns and violence, which it absolutely is.
There was no ambiguity tearing apart the real Chris Kyle. Proclaimed the most infamous killer in American history with probable kills around 250, shot in the next county through a scope. The ultimate gun loon. Four tours of killing and then back home to a life of more gun-gunning until finally meeting his maker with a gun, from a gun, at a gun range, in gun-gun Texas.
That story is stunning just in itself. Hey! I have a great idea! I know has Marine who has PTSD and is nuttier than a Mr Goodbar. Why don’t we go pick him up and take him to a gun range and give him a gun to play with! A bit of Darwinism at play in that doanyaknow.
Chris Kyle also bragged that he shot and killed two carjackers in Texas in 2009 to which no evidence was ever found and a few years later the courts found him guilty of libel and awarded Jesse Ventura $1.8 million for Kyle writing that he knocked out Ventura in a bar for being unpatriotic.
Of course Chris Kyle he is a hero to the NRA, the Tea Party, Republicans, Fox News and most especially Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent. After all here is the quote that makes him the American Hero he has become:
“I hate the d*** savages that I’ve been fighting and I always will. I love killing bad guys. Even with the pain, I loved what I was doing. Maybe war isn’t really fun, but I certainly was enjoying it.” Chris Kyle from his book American Sniper
If you are a Republican, what’s not to like about that?