Out of the Blue: What makes sniper story compelling?

Last week I pandered by writing about something I knew we would all agree on: the great weather we’ve been having.

This week I wade into deeper water by confronting an issue that is more controversial: why “American Sniper” has grossed a quarter of a billion dollars in just two weeks.

What’s this got to do with Laguna? Well, I always maintained that the reason the youth of Laguna were never involved in the anti-war movement was because this was not their battle. With a volunteer armed forces made up of mostly lower- and working-class kids, not many in Laguna were directly involved (one exception being the late Mark Metherell. There, of course, may be more).

In fact, in a recent cover story in The Atlantic on the decline of the American military, James Fallows wrote that only three-quarters of 1% of Americans served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Compare that to the end of World War II, when nearly 10% of the U.S. was on active military duty. For us in Laguna, that certainly makes sunsets a more relatable share on Facebook than how our incursion in the Middle East is faring.

As pure filmmaking goes, “American Sniper” is a tight offering, with super director Clint Eastwood at the helm and heartthrob Bradley Cooper doing an Oscar-worthy job interpreting real life super sniper Chris Kyle.

They put us right in the heat of battle, where Kyle’s split-second reflexes often meant the difference between life and death for the troops he was protecting. I admit it was fascinating to see him eye the enemy 1,000 yards away and “put him down,” as he would say in his autobiography of the same name. But we never got to know any of his victims and why they felt justified to fight us. They seemed like targets in a video game.

Kyle’s zeal to kill and his reference to the enemy as savages have drawn considerable backlach. Sure, we can all be armchair quarterbacks and contest that characterization as uncompassionate, without nuance, and forgetful that we were the invaders who were often guilty of killing innocents.

But I don’t begrudge Kyle for an instant. He was trained to do one thing — protect his brothers. And the only way to do that successfully was to kill without remorse.

But what is missing in this debate, and perhaps might have been a fitting postscript to the film, is that despite winning so many battles in Fallujah, Ramadi and Sadr City, we in fact lost the war. Those cities have long been returned to the extremists. And now we are going back yet again, to recapture Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, which is purported to be far more daunting than winning those other towns.

Cooper recently explained that the film is intentionally apolitical. It was only a character study of a man who performed incredibly under pressure. As such it is likely to serve as a tantalizing recruiting tool for other gun-loving cowboys.

But the bigger story remains that we spent over $1 trillion on an unjustified war that has done nothing to restore stability in the region. One could argue that it has created more instability, and certainly more aggression toward the West.

“In 13 years of sustained combat — the longest stretch of warfare in military history — the only clear strategic success was the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden,” writes Fallows.

The point of his article is that we no longer question the success of our military. We question our government, educational system, businesses, media and religions. But our military appears to be above reproach.

And here’s the crux of the matter. If you watch another recent war film, the “Imitation Game,” you will learn that the real decisions about who lives and who dies are not made on the battlefield. They are made far, far away, in secret warehouses with strategists and code breakers. But wait. That was World War II.

Today it is made by chickenhawks, the derisive term for those eager to go to war, as long as someone else is going. Many have relationships with contractors who profit hugely from war. President Dwight Eisenhower famously warned in his farewell address of the perils of a military whose political influence grew unchecked.

I’m still trying to understand the huge box office of “American Sniper.” Does it make us feel better about the war? Worse? Is it just a video game to inoculate us from the horror of killing another human being?

“I loved what I did. I still do,” Kyle wrote in his book. “I’m not exaggerating to say it was fun. I don’t spend a lot of time philosophizing about killing people.”

Was he a sociopath? He claimed after his service to have shot and killed two carjackers in his hometown in Texas, to have beaten up former pro wrestler and governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura, and to have shot and killed looters in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. All the stories have been debunked.

Does that make him any less a war hero? Certainly not. But it does suggest an unstable machismo, a love of fighting and killing that is creepy and just a step away from criminal behavior. I’m not sure I’d want him living next door.

Thank goodness there was a war for Kyle to fight and that we have lots more like him. I’d rather he be off in Iraq shooting people than doing it here. In case you haven’t heard, Kyle is gone too, allegedly killed by a fellow vet at a shooting range. The trial in his death starts this month. Tragic, bizarre, but undoubtedly good for the box office.

BILLY FRIED has a radio show on KX93.5 from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursdays called “Laguna Talks.” He is the chief experience officer of La Vida Laguna and member of the board of Transition Laguna. He can be reached at [email protected].