The ‘American Sniper’ Freakout | The Weekly Standard

The ‘American Sniper’ Freakout | The Weekly Standard: "But Kyle’s flaws don’t begin to explain the knee-jerk negative reaction to the film on the left, which goes far beyond the predictable political complaints. Academy voters have been circulating a much-derided New Republic article by a Penn State professor of international affairs who denounced the film in spite of his admission that he had seen only the trailer. The Washington Examiner also reports that the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence had supporters venting about the film on its Facebook page. If Navy SEALs in combat zones can’t legitimately engage in gun violence, who can? 

Part of it is simply that the film portrays Kyle as a proud southern, rural, religious, patriotic jock and gun enthusiast who was much more anguished about the people he was unable to save in Iraq than about the 160 confirmed sniper kills that the Navy credits him with. All of these traits are anathema to the left, though nearly all of the great soldiers in American history possessed one or more of them. Leftists simply can’t digest the fact that their own safety is predicated on the willingness to fight of courageous men they openly disdain. "



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