Category: Being a man

I’ve read the book, I’ve seen the movie, and Michael Moore needs to shut the fuck up.

When he waddles his Jabba the Hut ass out into a battle field humping 90LBS of equipment and takes on a bunch of fuckers trying to KILL HIM, then maybe I’ll take what he has to say about war, guns, and soldiers a little more seriously.

Until then will someone please tell him to shut his pie hole? I think he’s said quite enough.

Here’s my take for what its worth on Chris Kyle and American Sniper.

It’s a story of a man struggling to choose between something he does very well, his duty to his fellow soldiers, regardless of the branch of the military they were in, his country, and the love of his life & family.

You can’t read the book without noticing that past a little bit of swagger, and a smidgeon of embellishment, this guy was a real human being.

As to the embellishment… who hasn’t heard “War Stories” from a favorite uncle or grandparent? Chris Kyle didn’t get the opportunity to be that uncle, or grandparent, his life was cut tragically short in part because of his career after the Seal Team.

He was killed trying to reach out & help other vets truly come home.

As a man, he was stressed about the same things that all of us were stressed about. Am I doing the right thing? Did I make a difference? I could have done that better.

Chris Kyle, from his own words was someone that I’d probably have liked. I don’t know that we’d have been friends. I can say he sure was someone that I’d have respected and might have enjoyed joking and teasing with. I’d have gone to any shooting range with him and no doubt learned a lot.

Chris Kyle was not a racist xenophobe. He called people that were trying to kill him and his team-mates, “Savages” with good cause. “Savages” put explosives in the hands of their children and are surprised when their children are killed. Civilized people get their children out of harms way.

As far as Chris Kyle was concerned the “Savages” he was killing were evil of the most despicable kind. I suspect that, in part was why he was able to do four tours of duty without being killed. That belief that the evil was around him probably kept him sharp.

But the story is about so much more.

Again Mr. Kyle puts it best. “One day I’m in a war, then next I’m home.”

How the hell do you deal with that transition? I mean flying from the West coast to the Southeast can strip my gears, One minute I’m in a super liberal Kumbaya place and the next I’m home in a land of Sunday go to meeting “Rednecks”.

I can’t imagine having bullets flying at me one day and my child on my lap the next.

In the book Mr. Kyle talks about his relationship with his wife. Its beyond obvious that he loved her very deeply and loved his children as much or more. She was the love of his life. The book also gives you Taya Kyle’s perspective, which is sometimes a little different than his.

The story ultimately is about him, his loves, and foibles played out against the harsh reality of war. In the end, he makes his family his primary duty and it’s not a simple decision or easy for him to do. The Seals were his family just as much as his wife and children.

How do you choose between one half of your family and the other?

The nuances don’t come through as clearly in the movie as they do in the book. This is not the fault of the movie script so much as it is a matter of the time the movie had to tell the story.

The bottom line is this, the progressive leftists want to see only the harshness. They want to view this man only as a wind up soldier forgetting that he was fighting for them too.

They don’t want to be reminded that he was a human being and that he had depth and character and a moral compass that pointed north.

Acknowledging those facts means that they would have to abandon their preconceived notions and might actually like the movie, the book or God forbid, BOTH.

Read the book, see the movie then make up your own mind.

See past the battles for buildings and ground. See instead this man’s journey, I think you’ll appreciate this guy as a hero, but more importantly you’ll appreciate him as a man.

You should also know, I cried at the end of the book and again at the end of the movie.

My best friend looked the other way while I wiped away tears at the end of the movie.

I guess that’s why we’re still friends after a lot more years than either of us admit to.