American Sniper Criticism Rant
I just saw American Sniper, and having previously read numerous reviews talking about how it glorifies the death of Muslims, I would just like to include my opinion. I am a Navy brat, so I've grown up around the military and the ideals of them, so you can call me biased, (but I could say the same thing about others and that they've been influenced by anti-militarists) and this is what I believe:
The movie is not promoting the death of Muslims. The fact is, the war on terror that the US military is being fought is in a parts of the world that are majority followers of Islam. The terrorist organization is run by Muslims (mis)using the ideal of jihad to justify attacking other countries. If the threat was in countries that were primarily Christian, Christians that were killing Americans along with their own people, then people would be angry for the killings of Christians by the United States military. It's literally just a coincidence that that most of the deceased from the movie happen to be Muslim, though it wasn't directly said that they are killing Muslims in particular. If you actually watch the movie, it's very clear that every kill posed a threat to another person or group of people. (The kid had a grenade, the insurgents had guns and were shooting at soldiers, etc.) Yes, they were Muslim, but the killings were in protection of the service members that were keeping the innocent natives of the country safe along with their homeland. If you noticed, the city they were occupying was theoretically evacuated of all innocents, so anyone that was hanging around had a decent amount of suspicion already placed on them. If you suspected someone may harm someone you know, wouldn't you want to try and protect them in some way?
Another thing to note is that when a kid picked up a weapon, he was only prepared to take him out if absolutely necessary, and was completely relieved when he threw it down, dreading the actual event he would have to kill another kid.
Chris Kyle served to protect his country, his family, and overall his team, and this movie told his story and honored his life until the tragic end. He died helping soldiers with PTSD, and shitting all over his life work because you don't agree it was justified is disrespecting the sacrifices he endured, the friends he lost, and the pain he went through. I don't care if you don't agree with me, but if you read this far then thank you for considering my points in any way.