American Sniper, from a combat veteran’s perspective

*It makes a difference when we see the movie through the eyes of someone’s who’s been there.  VL

By Dr. Herny Flores, NewsTaco

The furor surrounding the protagonist in the newly released Clint Eastwood production “American Sniper” set me to thinking about the quandary we find ourselves in trying to look critically at our military adventurism in various parts of the world while, at the same time, not castigating our children, brothers, sisters, husbands, fathers, uncles, aunts, mothers and assorted other relatives for serving our country, sometimes paying the ultimate sacrifice in doing so.  This topic is important to Latinos because of the large numbers of us who have, do and will continue to serve in our nation’s military.

The Quandary

The quandary arose out of the aftermath of the Vietnam War when the nation discovered that we had been mistreating our combat veterans who had done their country’s bidding and fought a 30 year war that ended strangely.  The United States could not prevent the Vietnamese people from determining their own road to capitalism no matter how hard we tried!  In the meantime we sacrificed more than 50,000 young lives for what seemed like nothing.  Many more lives were ruined through various disabilities such as post-traumatic stress disorder, Agent Orange induced cancers, and so forth.

Unlike the veterans of World War II who were lionized and “heroized” because they had fought a “good war” against the forces of evil fascism/Nazism, the veterans of Vietnam and subsequent wars have endured a strange passage as they transitioned into the civilian world after their service.  The nation learned a cruel lesson after Vietnam having vilified combat veterans for fighting a war that was deemed immoral and unethical.  The nation saw these combat veterans as representatives of evil and not worthy of respect.

Then our next wars arrived, Desert Storm I and II, Iraq, and Afghanistan that were justified by the attacks on American soil.  “Ah, ha,” we said.  A rationale for entering wars morally, regardless of the truth of the matter, the nation had found a reason for proclaiming a justified war.  So, we sent our young men and women warriors to fight and return with the same problems veterans of earlier wars endured.  This time we began greeting the veterans in airports and on the streets, thanking them for their service and sacrifices.  This time we attempted to separate our veterans from the government who sent them into combat.

 American Sniper

American media began celebrating the war by making movies, releasing books, television documentaries and so forth extolling the actions of our veterans in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, the highlights being “The Hurt Locker,” “Restrepo” and the various television presentations of the taking of Osama Bin Laden.  The culmination of this genus was the release of the movie “American Sniper.”  Suddenly we have a controversy because of the depiction of what happens in combat, the way soldiers speak in combat and how they depict their enemies.

Unless one has been in combat they will never know what a combat veteran has gone through, how they talk or how they view their day-to-day existence while in combat.  Only combat brothers and sisters can truly understand this.  And, I must say, being a combat veteran myself, these thoughts, language and actions are not “things” to be shared with polite society!  To a combat veteran, combat is not representing one’s country or ideology, but a daily struggle to survive so one can see one’s family again.  Each brother and sister is dedicated to do whatever one must to insure survival and being able to come home as whole as possible.

Yes, combat veterans use derogatory language to describe the enemy because we see the other side as wanting to kill us.  We are in combat because the time for diplomacy has passed and our countries have decided that it is time to negotiate with violence not words.  Combat veterans kill others because the others are trying to kill in return.  One kills another not out of hatred or racism or ideological orientation but out of the fear that the other person will kill you.  Killing is described as a “rush” by some veterans because the act itself is the determination of whether another human will live or die.  Initially, one feels a “rush,” however, in the long run these deaths will come back to haunt the veteran until he or she passes away.  The memory of taking another’s life is eternal and will never disappear.

So, understand “American Sniper” for what it is, a movie and nothing more.  Do not try and judge combat veterans by the imagination and creativity of artists because this will only lead to false observations and conclusions.

Henry Flores, PhD, is a Vietnam veteran. He’s the Distinguished University Research Professor, Institute of Public Administration and Public Service; Director, Masters in Public Administration (MPA); Professor of International Relations and Political Science at St. Mary’s University.

[Photo courtesy of AmericanSnipermovie.com]

 

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