Its rare for me get overly worked up about an issue publicly via Facebook. I have many friends with a wide range of views across the full spectrum from left to right, which I value and respect even if we differ. THIS, however, pissed me off to now end. The article was published in 2013 but naturally Salon is re-posting it in conjunction with the upcoming movie release of @American Sniper. There are may FB comments in response, and I was too upset not to share mine: Among the many flaws in Millers argument is that shes attempting to apply the what she considers reason to a situation that defies all comprehension. In the little world she lives in, she will never see her friends shredded into chunks of unrecognizable flesh right before eyes, she will never feel the anxiety of riding in a vehicle through a village just waiting for it to explode into flames, she will never be faced with the moral dilemma in choosing between killing a child or watching that child kill a group of innocents, and she will never know the stress of wondering if she will live to see the next day. She will also never understand the deep bond only soldiers know, a bond that dictates a willingness to die to save the person next you. She naively believes the bad guys are reasonable individuals, not animals bent on killing in ways so savage she couldnt even conceive. Ultimately she doesnt understand the lasting impact that these traumatic experiences have on people for the rest of their lives. Some do their best to be healthy in the wake of such hell, others cannot, but it never goes away. Its tragic, but inevitable that our dear Laura Miller, cannot appreciate the freedom she has been given to express her opinions, because she has no comprehension of the sacrifice others have paid on her behalf. Therefore, she writes without emotion as she passes judgement on Kyle and all soldiers because, like many educated liberals, she knows nothing of the feelings behind patriotism. This is why she breaks down Kyles autobiography as if reviewing a novel which makes sense because she knows nothing of war (beyond referencing Clauzwitz to demonstrate her intellectual superiority over the warrior community). Kyles life and story are nothing more than fiction to her. It is no surprise that as the author of a book focused on the fiction of Narnia, Laura Millers world is one steeped fantasy. As a long-time book critic, Miller is thoroughly unqualified to comment as any sort of expert on the psychology and politics of warfare. In short, Laura Miller is ignorant, and her words indict her as a unappreciative snob and a fool. And finally on a personal note as a former active duty Infantry officer and the son of a Green Beret who witnessed in Southeast Asia the same horrors as Kyle, I would just like to say to Laura Miller that she and Salon can take this f#*king garbage and shove it straight up their g0ddamn asses.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 23:18:55 +0000
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