The Propaganda That is ‘American Sniper’

It all begins with a view of history seen through the eyes of the late Navy Seal Chris Kyle, deemed one of the US Army’s deadliest snipers who served on four tours of duty in Iraq. It is from that preserve that the cinematic account springs from, guided by the memoirs titledAmerican Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US Military History (2012).

Eastwood’s choice of conflict is excruciatingly cruel, an example of naked force exercised on false pretences. It was a war that commenced with a deception, marshalled against the dictates of international law. The Bush administration, doing its level best to imaginatively read available intelligence, invaded Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, assuming it had those fabled Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). The conflict served to destabilise not merely a state but the Middle East, unleashing the Sunni-Shiite fault line with incandescent fury and laying the ground for a future fracturing of the state. The Islamic State, to name but one force, has profited immensely from the zealous, foolhardy exercise.

That leaves the world view of Kyle, which is less that of geopolitical strategist than soldier patriot immersed in his job. What, then, is he fighting? “Savage despicable evil,” storms Kyle in his autobiography. “That’s what we were fighting in Iraq.” As for why the United States was there, the mindset of the liberator rapidly becomes that of the avenging killer. “They hated us because we weren’t Muslim. They wanted to kill us, even though we just booted out their dictator, because we practiced a different religion than they did.”

Eastwood, and Hall, insist that Kyle’s world is divorced from that of the political. In Eastwood’s words, “Pardon me for sounding defensive, but it certainly has nothing to do with any (political) parties or anything” (Toronto Star, Jan 13). Hall graces Kyle with the status of a firm believer and emphasised how it “cost him his physical health, his mental health and almost cost him his family” (Time Magazine, Jan 21).Patriotism, in short, is tragedy.