‘American Sniper’ No Hero In Iraq Movie Theaters
Iraqis, the people we purportedly went to save, aren’t seeing the movie the same way conservative Americans are.
American Sniper opened at Baghdad’s Mansour Mall theater earlier this month, but after just a week, it was pulled from screens because, as one theater employee told a reporter working for the GlobalPost, “the hero of this film boasts of killing more than 160 Muslims.” Another major movie theater in the city decided not to show the film “for fear of inciting protests and violence.”
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D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
edmeyer_able February 1st, 2015 at 8:38 am
I’m surprised the building is still standing.
Carla Akins February 1st, 2015 at 9:42 am
Seriously, what idiot thought that would be a good idea?
StoneyCurtisll February 1st, 2015 at 10:39 am
Having a Soviet Admiral speaking with a Scottish accent, (Sean Connery) didn’t help the movie either.
Robert M. Snyder February 1st, 2015 at 10:03 am
I suspect that The Hunt for Red October was not very popular in Russia.
arc99 February 1st, 2015 at 10:51 am
I mentioned this before that it is difficult to discuss the place of Chris Kyle in American history without either denigrating his service or at least having people think you are denigrating his service, which is not my intent.
But I think America needs to think long and hard on this question that I shall post again. Under what circumstances would we hail as a “hero”, a member of a foreign military force here to “help” us, who killed American citizens on American soil?
Imagine a world where our government has invited in a foreign military that does not speak our language and does not practice our majority religion. They have stationed a sniper on a rooftop in Omaha Nebraska who with our government’s blessings, is killing people those foreigners have determined to be terrorists. And oh by the way, your kids’ school is about 8 blocks away from where the sniper has permission to fire at will.
I have never been comfortable with the notion that somehow the United States has the right to inflict on other sovereign nations, conditions that no one would ever tolerate here at home. That is not denigrating the service of our people in uniform, it is a criticism of the mindset of the leadership of our government from both parties.
edmeyer_able February 1st, 2015 at 10:57 am
Kyle’s actions are a result of a “you broke it you fix it solution”. This is one of the reasons why Obama is reluctance to reintroduce ground forces.
Robert M. Snyder February 1st, 2015 at 11:13 am
I completely agree with what you just wrote. I have taken the liberty of paraphrasing your words to make one additional point:
“Imagine a world where our government has invited in a foreign military that does not speak our language and does not practice our majority religion. They have stationed a MILITARY DRONE IN THE SKY in Omaha Nebraska WHOSE OPERATOR, SITTING IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY, with our government’s blessings, is killing people those foreigners have determined to be terrorists.”
arc99 February 1st, 2015 at 1:05 pm
and I don’t disagree with your point either. I would only add that the blessing of these operations in Yemen were a unilateral declaration by their President, completely opposed by their legislature. That President was deposed just in the past two weeks so it remains to be seen how that affects our actions in Yemen.
In Pakistan, things are big murkier as their President has opposed the drone strikes in public, but according to several reports, endorsed them in private.
The bottom line is that I did explicitly point out that my criticism is of the leadership of both parties. The only partisan note I would add is that I fail to see how the President’s actions in this regard can be seen as being “soft on terrorism” which looks to be the rallying cry of the GOP’s 2016 crop of hopefuls.
Robert M. Snyder February 1st, 2015 at 2:54 pm
We should never underestimate our adversaries. Among the many ISIS recruits and sympathizers, there are likely to be people with computer skills. I hope that when people discuss terrorism, now and in the run-up to the next election, they don’t think only in terms of things we have seen before. We really need to harden our technological infrastructure.
It’s not hard to imagine drone-killing drones, satellite-killing missiles, etc. A lot of our technology was not designed to withstand attacks. Surely our adversaries are aware of that.
So when people talk about whether the president is “soft on terrorism”, I do not immediately think of taking out 100 bad guys with guns. I think about defending against the lone bad guy with high tech skills. It could be a high-tech Timothy McVeigh, born and raised on American soil. I hope this president, and future presidents, are thinking outside the box so we don’t get another rude awakening like we did on 9/11.
Obewon February 1st, 2015 at 3:26 pm
“It’s not hard to imagine drone-killing drones, satellite-killing missiles, etc. A lot of our technology was not designed to withstand attacks.”-Lol. You really don’t know anything about true U.S. military technologies and countermeasures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qncyuC0sKZY
Robert M. Snyder February 1st, 2015 at 3:38 pm
Obewon, sometimes I get the impression that you are about twelve years old. Have you ever worked with real-world technology, or just played computer games? If you don’t think our technology infrastructure is vulnerable to attack, then please stay far, far away from positions of authority, because your type of hubris gets people killed.
Obewon February 1st, 2015 at 3:44 pm
You were debunked by my grand dads 1971 lasers shooting down 5 of 5 ICBM’s at China Lake Naval Ordnance Test Station when I was a teenager. During the 1980’s 5% of my clients were Top Secret projects including the F 117 A, B & C stealth fighters and the B-2 stealth bombers.
fancypants February 1st, 2015 at 7:54 pm
im more interested who was giving kyle ” the green light ” for each kill ? since the Iraqis are obviously upset about kyle getting the job done correctly…it does raise more questions
StoneyCurtisll February 1st, 2015 at 11:16 am
I agree 100%
And it would have been better if there actually were ties with Al-Queda and and massive stock piles of bio-chemical weapons..(WMD)
Instead of a bunch of lies.
mea_mark February 1st, 2015 at 11:21 am
Great comment.
ChrisVosburg February 1st, 2015 at 12:55 pm
Well said, arc. When I think about guys like Chris Kyle (and this goes for many of the larger-than-life Navy Seal guys in general), I keep coming back to a line from The Prophecy (1995), in which lapsed catholic priest Thomas Daggett ponders the character of angels:
Did you ever notice how in the Bible, whenever God needed to punish someone, or make an example, or whenever God needed a killing, he sent an angel? Did you ever wonder what a creature like that must be like? A whole existence spent praising your God, but always with one wing dipped in blood. Would you ever really want to see an angel?
fancypants February 1st, 2015 at 7:56 pm
nor was the Dirty dozen popular in Germany
StoneyCurtisll February 1st, 2015 at 11:07 am
I would imagine that the new right wing hero, American Sniper(Kris Kyle) is about as popular The Japanese sniper that killed Sgt Stryker,(John Wayne) in The Sands of Iwo Jima.
mcalleyboy February 2nd, 2015 at 6:11 am
We don’t belong in the Middle East but comparing a Muslim to a non-Muslim, that don’t wash or make sense, sorry.