Seven Big Lies 'American Sniper' Is Telling America

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

These types of movies succeed at doing exactly what they're meant to do:

- to glorify the act of war
- to glorify and justify military actions
- to justify the actions of political and corporate agendas
- to bring about a sense of flag waving and chest thumping from the audience
- to make all soldiers into saints and heroes (even when some are not)
- to reaffirm the need for tax dollars being pumped into military budgets
- to brainwash the audience into believing "we good, they bad"
- to glorify and justify the killing of all those 'bad people'


The added bonus is that everybody involved gets to rake in a bucket load of cash whilst spoonfeeding this age-old propaganda to the masses.

Win win.



As a side note: Our enemies get fed the exact same propaganda on their side of the fence.

War is an easy sell, it always has been.

originally posted by: SlapMonkey
Sheesh, for a guy whose background says "no h8," you sure appear to have a lot of it.

How's that? I don't hate the guy at all. I don't know why you think I do. Saying that someone lied is not hatred. I don't care what he did. If he lies about it, he's not a hero to me.

You have made a crapload of assumptions in your post and I'm not really interested in addressing each one, but I suggest you read WHAT I WROTE, and not assume a bunch of other stuff I didn't say.

And, I'm not a guy.

I don't know your personal life story, but if you've never deployed, let alone served, you are writing on a topic about which you are woefully ignorant.

I am writing about a movie which I have read a lot about, but haven't seen (as I said in the OP). A MOVIE. Sorry if my opinions on the movie and the subject matter offend you and don't meet with your politically correct view of the military. But I'm not much into political correctness.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

Oh, I forgot to mention one other thing these types of movies succeed at doing:

- to brainwash the audience into policing each other so as to make sure that anyone who criticizes any aspect of anything related to war, military, or soldiers... gets tarred, feathered, and strung up from a high tree.

It's a beneficial side effect related to that whole flag-waving, chest-thumping thing.

a reply to: CranialSponge

Excellent posts. I've been criticized so many times for speaking my mind on the military industrial complex (because I have never been in the military) that I'm immune to it. They can tar and feather me with their words all they like. It won't change my opinion. I don't have to be in the military to have a valid opinion on it.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

Meh, never sweat the small stuff.

Some of us see through the dog and pony show, some of us don't.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

The funny thing about the "you haven't served so your opinion is invalid" cop out is that they don't say that to people who haven't served that lick the boots of those who did.



Very selective cop out.



People can say what they want about what they like...
& don't go complaining about it in one instance and then screaming freedom of speech in another.


S&F!

Just the title, and the poster gave it away as one big peace of propaganda.

Usually the US military are involved with the scripts of these flics, are there any info on such relationship with this piece of propaganda? i might have missed it...
Hollywood & Pentagon

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

I usually don't comment on this forum but after reading all the disgusting comments about this great American hero I feel I got to chime in! I'm an ex soldier myself and can tell you that not many people have the courage to raise their right hand and take an oath to defend their country from enemies foreign and domestic and then actually go to battle when ordered to uphold that oath whether they agree with the war or not. That is what makes the opinion of someone who has never served invalid its like giving an opinion about skydiving and being to cowardly to actually jump out of the plane yourself.
Not only did this great hero serve his country and uphold his oath he picked the hardest profession in the military! How many people here in this forum could even last 5 min going through seal training? How many American lives did he save over there? Amazing how you armchair warriors can sit behind your computers and trash this man! I'm 42 years old if my country called me back into service to uphold my oath I would do it in a heartbeat to the best of my ability how many here would do that? Keep hating on our military all you want but remember during ww2 when we were needed we were there!

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

Funny, but in my experience, it doesn't work like that - I've seen people who never left the comfort of their parents' house or their dorm room trying to tell people who actually served in Kurdistan, or the Sunni Triangle, who've been on patrol in Baghdad, who fought in Fallujah, or lost a half-dozen friends in Ramadi, that their experiences are "incorrect" - because said high school student read about it in the Huffington Post in an article written by another high-schooler who heard it from a friend, who read it in the Alternet ...

Also in my experience, those who served in those places didn't necessarily choose those wars, but they suffered, physically and emotionally, and are generally grateful when people acknowledge their service, thank them for it, or at least don't figuratively spit on it, or tell them their experiences didn't happen, 'cause they read about it on ATS ...

a reply to: squittles

Great reply good job putting these feminized cowards in their place! I'm tired of these cowardly men with their hair color and man purses trashing my country and its heroes! !

originally posted by: tiberius10721
... but remember during ww2 when we were needed we were there!

Yes. One of the last wars that was actually fought for the people. Ever since then, they've been for money, power and greed. It's sad you have to go back that far to find a justified war.

I actually support the US having a military to defend and protect us, but they haven't done that for MANY years. They've been USED.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

Has The American Film Industry ever produced a war film that doesn't include lies ?

I doubt it very much.

a reply to: tiberius10721

Sad to hear that you had to undergo that "waste-of-time, imho.
So if they yell "ATTENTION" you stand there in a heartbeat, stiff as a board, awaiting orders? I guess so, that's what soldiers do, follow orders.
Do you just accept the orders, and carry them out? If you were given the orders to kill an American, would you do it? Without asking questions? What if they told you the pope was behind 9/11? Would you blindly go and assassinate the pope?

My take on this whole thing, is that if the soldiers was better informed, most would never go to Afghanistan.
There should have been a strike between soldiers when the Iraq-war order was issued, don't you think?
Merely that all soldiers just "did what they were told", paints a grim picture of enlightenment in the US.
I know the penalty for not following orders.. but that's something you have to weigh yourself.

Remember the German soldiers during WW2, was also "just following orders".

This is the age of information, so even soldiers are allowed to think, and decide for themselves.
Imagine if the age of information started back in the 1960s, how would the Vietnam war turn out?

Its time to be a responsible soldier. Time has changed!

I am sorry if i have provoked you in any way, it's not my intention. I am not a soldier either.

a reply to: tiberius10721

So you must be a Chef to understand a well cooked meal?

You need to be a fireman to know that water extinguishes fire?



Even more so, this "hero" came out and pretty much glorified everything about what he did...
It's all there to scrutinise, none of these opinions come from a lack of knowledge on the subject because he wrote a book about it...



The only type of opinion that is invalid, is the opinion that people's opinions are invalid...



The holier than thou attitude is a turn off as well.


& I didn't even "trash" the guy... I just don't see the heroism.


Finally, I think you should end the assumptions of "who's brave enough" to defend their homeland...
Not signing up and serving does not equate to a coward...
I'm sure just as many people who don't serve would be one of the first to defend theirs and others families on their own land without needing to take an Oath.

Think about it, maybe some of them people think that if a war is not right, then they won't serve just because the government says they should.

That's a hero!

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs
Think about it, maybe some of them people think that if a war is not right, then they won't serve just because the government says they should.

That's a hero!

100% agreed! A thinking soldier! Not a freakin' robot, al thou technology is heading that way...

originally posted by: tiberius10721

“Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”

― Henry Kissinger

Isn't it time to prove Kissinger wrong, mighty hero ?

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

There will always be greed,money and corruption in govt but when Chris Kyle was called to do his duty did he whine and complain about how it was a unjust war or did he go and do the best job he could for his country and for his battle buddies ? You will never understand the bond between soldiers if you have never served! As far as your comment goes about the US military not having defended you since ww2 how bout all the money and resources we spent during the Cold War to keep the commies at bay until the cloapse of the Soviet Union ,what about all the men who died and resourses we still spend in Korea ? Or how bout the fact that China right now is building a massive navy who do you think will be standing up to them? Maybe France lol? Bush and Cheney may be war criminals but don't use your emotions to minimize the contributions the US military has made to the world!

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

Lol as if soldiers are politicians and have a right to question what war they are sent to what planet do you live on? If I was serving in an infantry platoon like I used to and had a bad ass sniper watching my back you have no idea how grateful I would be! This is what you don't understand forget about the politics of the war and examine what he did as a man and fellow soldier with the men he served with!

a reply to: tiberius10721

Problem is, none of these military men are actually doing anything to help unless they are ordered to do so.

With all the orders they take, it is hard to say which ones were ever relevant to any cause of humanity, or any said country and its citizens, and we can SEE that the vast majority of operations are all to serve at the behest of an extreme elite, a corrupt gang.

So in the end, it is hard to for me to compartmentalize myself as the majority finds it easy to do, and say well, "despite the circumstances you did your job well"!

Just loses its luster.

originally posted by: tiberius10721
a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

There will always be greed,money and corruption in govt but when Chris Kyle was called to do his duty did he whine and complain about how it was a unjust war or did he go and do the best job he could for his country and for his battle buddies ? You will never understand the bond between soldiers if you have never served! As far as your comment goes about the US military not having defended you since ww2 how bout all the money and resources we spent during the Cold War to keep the commies at bay until the cloapse of the Soviet Union ,what about all the men who died and resourses we still spend in Korea ? Or how bout the fact that China right now is building a massive navy who do you think will be standing up to them? Maybe France lol? Bush and Cheney may be war criminals but don't use your emotions to minimize the contributions the US military has made to the world!

Contributions? That's a big word.
May i suggest you study this article:
Timeline of United States military operations
Then start from 1945, and work your way to the present. How many of the interventions was for Big Corps? How many was to "fight for freedom"?
Communist threat ? ROFL! Yeah, of course capitalism is under threat. Or was it because the Russians was better to the space race than America, even thou the US had stolen most of the Nazi technology and their inventors? Remember Von Braun? The rocket guy?
Operation Paperclip
(Do you think the cold war started at this time?)
The US joined the war fully, but only when the Russians had already slain the German 5th army. Now it was a race to plunder technology.
When obtaining the enemy's technology, can you be sure you do not obtain the enemy's ideology?
Dismissed!