Your review over American sniper movie ?

For me ,
The biggest lie : the Film Suggests the Iraq War Was In Response To 9/11

ahmedfire wrote:For me ,
The biggest lie : the Film Suggests the Iraq War Was In Response To 9/11

That plus all the actions scenes were made up... There was no "Olympic Sniper" and the "Butcher" was killed before Kyle ever got there.

I saw the movie last week......and I already forgot what it was all about.

WATCH: Chomsky Blasts 'American Sniper' and the Media that Glorifies It

This movie shows us how detached from reality America is. It is living in a self-righteous bubble built on lies.
When Americans bomb countries it is to "do good". They actually believe this sh*t.

This movie is particularly grotesque in its distortions since they elevate a psychopath into some sort of hero.
He is a cowardly war criminal.

I see Americans routinely fob off any criticism by claiming that civilians shot at their precious colonial troops.
That's funny. Americans put the rebels of their revolutionary war on a pedestal even though they shot and killed
redcoats. Truly, American perceptions are unhinged. Such hypocrisy comes from too much narcissism (indoctrinated
from birth by the media, i.e. America is #1 and the beacon of democracy) and total apathy (American ignorance
about the rest of the world is not funny, it is deadly).

I would like to add some information on the thread, I live in America, more specifically Washington state. American Sniper had a good reception inside the theater but outside and in daily life, no one really gives a damn.
But there are more concerning things in America than the movie American Sniper. No one even talks about the Iraq or Libya wars. My state is one of the few states that actually has things like anti-war protesters and people that go
"Wait a minute, where were the Iraqi WMD's or why did we go into Kosovo and not Rhwanda?" Sadly to say, those people are few and far in between and usually hushed up or just stop talking because no one pays attention to them.

By far the most curious and perplexing phenomena in America is that when Americans talk in between themselves they talk plenty about America's problems and cite valid statistics on crime,corruption, living standards, education, obesity, etc. However, when someone from another country or on a online forum starts citing those same opinions and statistics, they will go ballistic and scream from the high heavens about all the good America has done in the world, how it would forever be less bright, and far behind and backward we would be without all the American innovations. There was an actual documentary by the History Channel or other drivel-spilling media outlet like it, about how the world would be different without America. Ironically, the same people that I personally know and talk with always slam Guantanamo and similar subjects like drone strikes killing civilians are the exact same people screaming about gulags, and concentration camps etc. and compare them with the "civilized western world". They talk about the horrors of war and yet gladly want to " teach Assad and the rest of the world their place when it comes to dealing with America."(direct quote). The quote that GarryB has for his signature about how westerners forget on how they only won the world through superior means of organized violence is absolutely true. Some of my friends talk about how concerned they are about Russia Today and the "KGB propaganda machine", I like to respond with "Don't be concerned with Russia Today, you know who is paying them. Can you say for sure who funds and controls
MSN or BBC or Fox News?" I felt particularly proud to then watch my friend who I stated this to then proceed to research multiple outlets and their origins and owners, and then state "Holy sh*t, what's the point of having all of these?! They are all the same!"

To sum it all up, the idea that you are going to change America or the West's mind with truth and logic is blindly idealistic, and the task would be Herculean in nature. They often forget that on the other side of the world, living in a nation that they believe is going to invade them and raise the Russian Imperial flag over them, are actual people, with hopes, dreams, agendas, sadness, and joy. They have dehumanized the world into allies, neutrals, and sworn by blood enemies.

Yes, i have talked to a few americans online and during my Bundeswehr time and some indeed argue about issues in US but when a "foreigner" calls on the same issues they act like this is a personal attack. They have been indoctrinated to believe everyone that is not white and from US is a savage and has no opinion based on logic or knowledge, but only on Anti-american propaganda somewhere deep from Kreml agenda, that every single average guy that does not like US must be paid by Kreml itself to have such an opinion.

Sometimes such average americans actually say the truth unwanted. I talked with an US american about their issues and at the end i asked him so if all this shit is the same why don't they vote for something else than Obama,Bush and shits alike, why not voting for Ron Paul or Jesse Ventura. He replied that US americans would not vote for them because they are to friendly and peaceful and americans would feel proud anymore. That sums up the entire US constructed mindset of pro-warmongers which the country is filled with. They are so indoctrinated that they love war and not peace just like the South Park Episode with one group pretend wanting peace while the other group is actually invading and murdering across the globe.

The American media is "the root of all evil". I was in the USA during the time of 9/11. Various small protests broke out to not
go on a lynch mob frenzy in the middle east. None of these small protests were reported by the US media, both local and
national. The US did go on a lynching operation in Iraq, a state which had nothing to do with 9/11.

People in the USSR during the 1970s were aware that Pravda and the rest of the Soviet media were not trustworthy.
People in the USA today and for decades believe basically everything the US media feeds them. If I was going to come
up with an objective measure of totalitarianism, I would have to conclude the USA is much more totalitarian today than
the USSR was during the post WWII period.

The researchers found that 59% on a regular basis get at least some news from local TV, 47% from national TV news shows, and just 23% from the Interne and here's the result:

#Christian-right politicians claim absurdly that U.S. laws are based on the Bible.
#A 2007 National Constitutional Center poll found that two-thirds of Americans couldn’t name all three branches of the U.S. federal government, nor a single Supreme Court justice.
#The National Constitution Center also found that 42 percent of Americans think the Constitution explicitly states that “the first language of the United States is English;” and 25 percent believe Christianity was established in the Constitution as the official government religion.
# A great majority of Americans have no idea of when or by whom the Constitution was written.
#About 1 in 4 Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.) But more than half of Americans can name at least two members of the fictional cartoon family, according to a survey.

I would like to point out that while I don't like the US administration, I like Americas ideals and morals and share most of them. the problem I have with America today is that they really don't hold themselves up to their own morals and ideals and take criticism of such as a personal attack.

If they actually used their high morals as a code to live by for themselves instead of an instrument or rule book to judge other states and entities by then they would have my full support.

Sadly they don't even try. Just too hard it seems.

I like Americas ideals and morals and share most of them. the problem I have with America today is that they really don't hold themselves up to their own morals and ideals and take criticism of such as a personal attack.

If they actually used their high morals as a code to live by for themselves instead of an instrument or rule book to judge other states and entities by then they would have my full support.

Sadly they don't even try. Just too hard it seems.

That is a contradiction in itself.

You like americas ideals and morals while the majority don't have morals nor ideals and don't follow what they advocate, that is literally a contradiction.

The US is among those countries i would never want to live in, since i despise ignorance, arrogance and supremacy (exceptionalism) and religious nutheads, which the US is filled with to the top.

Rather true, most Americans believe that they have a right to the world and it's resources, I've talked with some and their replies go along the lines of "America is best, so we should have it" type of mentality.
Anyone that goes against them hates "freedom and democracy". Most that I have talked with like to say that we need Guantanamo and it's filled with dangerous terrorists. But if Russia has a prison or China, then it's full on "WHY ARE TEY IMPRISONING THEIR OWN PEOPLES OMG LETS RESCUE THEM!!11!!!". Btw, we had a study recently done in America about the Ukraine issue, the survey was basically in  the street ask random people type. It asked people if we(America) should go to war over Ukraine with Russia, and then place a marker over where they think Ukraine is. The interesting thing is, most people that wanted to go to war, did not even know where Ukraine is.

2SPOOKY4U wrote:Rather true, most Americans believe that they have a right to the world and it's resources, I've talked with some and their replies go along the lines of "America is best, so we should have it" type of mentality.
Anyone that goes against them hates "freedom and democracy". Most that I have talked with like to say that we need Guantanamo and it's filled with dangerous terrorists. But if Russia has a prison or China, then it's full on "WHY ARE TEY IMPRISONING THEIR OWN PEOPLES OMG LETS RESCUE THEM!!11!!!". Btw, we had a study recently done in America about the Ukraine issue, the survey was basically in  the street ask random people type. It asked people if we(America) should go to war over Ukraine with Russia, and then place a marker over where they think Ukraine is. The interesting thing is, most people that wanted to go to war, did not even know where Ukraine is.

That is also quite big portion of the reason why americans are so warmongering people, yes i said it, people. The less people know the more likely they are for radical and extreme measurements. Idiots are dangerous and hurting all rest of people.

I would like to make a survey in the US that will lead to one outcome i know right now already. To ask people some political questions with one question that is like "Should people have a say in foreign politics who can't point out where a specific country is located based on the foreign policy towards this country?" and from american ignorance i already know people would go right in the trap and than ask if they can point out where Ukraine,Iraq,Russia,Lybia,North Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, Dominican Rep. and all the rest of countries the US has invaded, bombed, regime changed or occupies right now. You would see and show them their own ignorance and hypocrisy.

That is a contradiction in itself.

No it isn't.

You like americas ideals and morals while the majority don't have morals nor ideals and don't follow what they advocate, that is literally a contradiction.

I like the morals and ideals that America judges other countries by but does not judge itself by.

America will call Al Quada a terrorist because it crashed airliners into buildings in the US killing less than 3,000 people, yet will invade foreign countries like Iraq and Afghanistan and kill people with unmanned drones in other countries like Yemen and Pakistan without UN permission.

By Americas own standards they are the terrorists.

America says borders in Europe are sacred and cannot be altered... except in Kosovo.

The US demands sanctions on Russia for interfering in Ukraine and then sends weapons and advisors to train Ukrainian soldiers...

The US makes demands and has pretty clear morals and standards and imposes those morals and standards on Russia and Serbia and Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria and Libya and Cuba and North Korea etc etc. It repeatedly ignores those same morals and standards with its own behaviour...

Economic terrorism in Cuba.. burning sugar cane fields, assassination attempts against foreign leaders who managed to get into office despite attempts to bribe influential people to get a different result.

Peace and democracy is the call, but they do everything they can to create war and instability where things are not the way they like them.

The US is among those countries i would never want to live in, since i despise ignorance, arrogance and supremacy (exceptionalism) and religious nutheads, which the US is filled with to the top.

I agree... it seems to be filled with people who either don't know or don't care what their government does and then can't understand why the world does not love them.

I remember many years ago chatting to a young american who couldn't understand why I didn't love america like he did... after all america saved new zealand from the japs in wwii.

He didn't really like it when I pointed out that america didn't save nz in the pacific in wwii, they left it until the japs attack us territory and then they saved themselves.

More ironically they created the whole situation in the first place with their economic blockade of Japan that forced them to first attack north to mongolia that was beaten back by the Soviets, and then turn south for natural resources like oil and metals and rubber etc.

I do agree that the US government contradicts itself with a gulf between what it says and what it does.

that doesn't change the fact that I tend to agree with what it says, just not what it does.

Very simply it applies its morals to justify its actions yet it only acts in its own interests... which make for contradictions where Serbian territory can be carved up and given to the local population like Kosovo, but the Crimea cannot possibly be allowed the same rights to vote on its future and neither can South Ossetia and Kosovo... because Krushchev in the former case and Joseph Stalin in the latter case are always right...

You like americas ideals and morals while the majority don't have morals nor ideals and don't follow what they advocate, that is literally a contradiction.

America will call Al Quada a terrorist because it crashed airliners into buildings in the US killing less than 3,000 people, yet will invade foreign countries like Iraq and Afghanistan and kill people with unmanned drones in other countries like Yemen and Pakistan without UN permission.

By Americas own standards they are the terrorists.

The US is among those countries i would never want to live in, since i despise ignorance, arrogance and supremacy (exceptionalism) and religious nutheads, which the US is filled with to the top.

I agree... it seems to be filled with people who either don't know or don't care what their government does and then can't understand why the world does not love them.

What you say is unbelievably true, there are three types of people in the U.S. There is the 1% that know what the U.S. does to other countries, there is the 3% that know and don't care unless it affects them. Then there is the remaining 96% that believe everything the government tells them when it comes to other countries. And about the whole morality and standards bullshit the U.S. government spouts? Barely anyone actually supports them, there is this thing called "war porn" in the U.S. We get shown footage of airstrikes on ISIS practically every night on some news channels. And people love it. That facade they call morality that the gov puts on is for outside and some internal consumption, in reality the majority of the U.S. population WANTS to invade, airstrike, kill, maim etc. Most think that Guantanamo is necessary and when they get confronted with proof that most people in there are innocent, they respond with "well, they should have been more careful"<--Actual quote I heard.

To bring it all together, the U.S. does not even have a moral barometer, measurement system etc for itself or others, it is simply just a excuse in the compendium of excuses. Nothing more, nothing less.

The funny thing is that most people know their government lies to them, but when their government says there are WMDs in Iraq and the media everywhere repeats that lie they seem to think it is a case that if the government was lying their media would tell them.

Sadly the days of cutting and pasting have replaced real journalism so it is easier to make a deadline if you cut and paste what everyone else is saying and don't think about it too much.

Is happening all over the west... the really funny thing is that the western journalist who speaks the truth most of the time is the comedian John Daily...

Imagine the UK in the 1970s where Benny Hill is a more respected source of knowledge than the BBC...

i watched it, and i was furious for an while where its portrayed the iraqi people are as evil people. and simultaneously avoid mentioning why things became like they are. like why people are still in Falluja?. because its surrounded by freaking desert and people would die if they tried to get out into such harsh environment conditions on foot. or the fact the U.S unloaded a shit-ton of depleted uranium there on buildings or just simple indiscriminate bombing of buildings. insurgents where of course present, but it was american firepower that destroyed the city to one uranium polluted mess.

the "movie" ....i'd chosen "diabolically changing reality of events and facts that should get you into hell" if i had to put an name on it, is something ill never watch again and always battle in aguement what was displayed there.

its in an sense nothing different from what happened in Afghanistan. things happened there that should have send U.S and NATO troops directly to The Hague for war crimes. and in some cases i'd personally would want to ruin some people's lives for what they did out there and hold them accountable. but before events even get "investigated"...lets just say "investigated" means just changing logbooks and facts to make them suitable to shove them under the carpet of red tape and buraucracy. its the NATO system above the actual ground forces that will make sure "what happens on the ground, stays on the ground". they defend everyone and will change written facts as much untill it suits them. politicians, officers, generals, and yes even war criminals like Kyle just are protected by this system.

i went there as airborne infantry to afghanistan and had my share of combat, but those people living there are just trying to get by. same for the iraqi people. and respectfully. party's like ISIS or Taliban excluded, yes those people lost a lot of fammily to NATO fire. i do understand where the anger comes from against NATO from younger people among them. while "we" walk around on their streets like some imperial occupier that consider's their live's no more worth than an measly 200 dollars.

i could go on and on with examples,... but "Kyle" got exactly what he deserved, to get killed in an unfamous way in real life. arrogant self righteous piece of murderous trash.

American Sniper vs. Baghdad Sniper

Pepe Escobar

Chris Kyle's story is now enshrined in celluloid, taking over $300 million at the box office, but the Islamic Army in Iraq also had its legend, "Juba" – the Baghdad Sniper.

A Texas jury found former Marine Eddie Ray Routh guilty of capital murder; in 2013 he shot to death former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the man behind American Sniper – the book later turned into a blockbuster movie directed by Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood. Texas Governor Greg Abbott also made his mark, post-verdict, by tweeting "JUSTICE!"

It didn’t matter that Routh’s attorneys — and his family – insisted he suffered from psychosis, caused by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Texas prosecutors easily brushed it off – "proving" Routh’s episodes of PTSD were provoked by alcohol and marijuana.

American Sniper – the movie – could not but become a pop culture phenomenon in the US. Kyle, played by Bradley Cooper, is Dirty Harry in combat gear – a specialist in dehumanizing the faceless "enemy" as he eviscerates them one by one. The "enemy" happened to be defending the homeland against an invading/occupying force.
Poetic justice does intervene, and the Ultimate Sniper also becomes dehumanized himself. He is diagnosed with PTSD.

In a cruel twist of fate, he ends up eviscerated back home, on a firing range, by someone he was trying to help; a serviceman with – you guessed it – PTSD.

For every US soldier killed in 2014, no less than 25 veterans committed suicide. For the second year in a row, the Pentagon has lost more troops to suicide than to combat. Ah, but in Texas, this stuff is for sissies.

Kyle, according to his own version, made more than 300 kills as a sniper for SEAL Team 3. After he left the military, his atonement was to help with war veterans facing PTSD, usually taking them to – what else — shooting.

Clint Eastwood is way more nuanced than he is given credit for — as his deceptively shallow interviews over the years may imply. It just might be that, appealing for the basest instincts, he may have enshrined yet another American hero to better deliver an anti-war movie.

Which brings us to the American Sniper’s ultimate opposite number: Juba.

Aiming for that lone shot

Hosts Chris Pine and Academy President Cheryl Boone announce the movie 'American Sniper' as one of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture

"Juba" was the nickname given by the invading/occupying US forces to an Iraqi pop phenomenon; a sniper who became legendary for his kills in southern Baghdad. He was a ghost. Nobody knew his name, how did he look, even whether he was Iraqi or not.
Juba became a legend across the Arab world because he only targeted "coalition" soldiers – as in the invading/occupying troops, all heavily protected by armored vehicles, body armor and helmets. Translation; he only killed Americans who were led to believe – by the Pentagon and the corporate media machine — they were "liberating" Iraq from Saddam, who was allied with al-Qaeda and "attacked us on 9/11". I heard this straight from many a soldiery mouth – no irony intended.

Juba scored kills from up to 200 meters away – something that American Sniper would be hard pressed to accomplish.

Juba was infinitely patient, and devastatingly accurate. He would fire only one shot – and then change his position. He never fired a second shot. He aimed for the tiniest gap in the soldiers' body armor, and target their lower spine, ribs or above the chest. No US specialist sniper team was ever able to track him.

That explains, in a nutshell, why Juba became an urban legend in Baghdad, the Sunni triangle, and beyond. What is virtually certain is that he was a member of the Islamic Army in Iraq (jaysh al islāmi fī'l-'irāq). A hero of the resistance against the invaders, of course, but far from a Salafi-jihadi.

The Islamic Army in Iraq, by the mid-2000s, was the number one resistance group against the Americans, as promoted by former Iraqi vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi. They were all former Ba'athists – Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds working together. And so was Juba – who was thought to be Sunni. But that was never totally confirmed.

In this image released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Kyle Gallner, left, and Bradley Cooper appear in a scene from American Sniper. The film is based on the autobiography by Chris Kyle

By the mid-2000s, the resistance could not but be popular – with the "liberation" entailing over 50% of Iraqis being undernourished; at least 1 out of 3 literally starving; and at least 50% of the whole population living in abject poverty.
By the end of 2005 the Islamic Army in Iraq released a 15-minute video of Juba’s Greatest Kills. By mid-2006 all sorts of figures were circulating about his real tally. That included feats such as Juba eviscerating a four-strong marine scout sniper team in Ramadi, in the "triangle of death", all of them with a single shot to the head.

US snipers were always deployed in teams of at least two, a shooter and a spotter. A spotter had to be extremely experienced, using very complex calculus to factor, for instance, wind variations and drag coefficients. Juba, instead, was a loner.

Rebel with a Dragunov

The Islamic Army of Iraq liked to boast that Juba – and other snipers – were trained essentially by the book 'The Ultimate Sniper: An Advanced Training Manual for Military and Police Snipers' (Paladin Press, 1993; expanded edition in 2006), written by retired US sniper John Plaster.

What a fabulous post-Cold War tale; tactics may have been borrowed from the (American) invader; but the weapon of choice was Russian.

Juba's usual "nest" – where he holed up before a kill — was invariably decorated by an assortment of bed mattresses, which muffled the sound of his Dragunov sniper rifle, also known as SVD; a semi-automatic designed by Evgeniy Dragunov in the former USSR in the late 1950s. The SVD has always been highly regarded as the world's first purpose-built military precision marksman’s rifle. So considering the close relations between the USSR and Saddam’s Iraq, no wonder the Ba'athist military was familiar with the Dragunov.

Juba's trademark "souvenir" also became as legendary as his Invisible Man persona; a lone bullet casing, and a few words jotted down in Arabic: What has been taken in blood cannot be regained except by blood. The Baghdad Sniper.

There was a time in late 2005, early 2006, when I was following the Iraqi resistance closely even when I was not on the ground, that I flirted with the idea of writing a screenplay about Juba. He was a sort of Camus-style hero for a great deal of Iraqis; an existential rebel, but with a Dragunov. In the end I discarded the idea, considering that only an Iraqi would be able to fully examine the psychology of the Baghdad sniper.

Today, the Baghdad sniper may survive only as the ghost of a faded urban legend. Baghdad itself changed its status from mostly Sunni to mostly Shi'ite – and its new fears center on the fake ISIS/ISIL/Daesh Caliphate. American Sniper, on the other hand, is touring the planet as a digital celebrity hero, even as US right-wingers loudly complained neither Clint Eastwood’s movie nor Bradley Cooper got any Oscars. It only goes to show — once again — that since Vietnam, the only place the Empire of Chaos wins its wars is in Hollywood.



Read more: http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20150226/1018789975.html#ixzz3SrtEVTun

Juba scored kills from up to 200 meters away – something that American Sniper would be hard pressed to accomplish.

First of all 200m is not that impressive for a sniper... most US snipers practise target shooting at 1,000m with a similar calibre rifle to the SVD.

At 200 metres an M16 is an effective rifle.

Second... the term is a metre... it is a unit of distance. A meter is a measuring device like a light meter or a water meter.

The thing is that propaganda is propaganda and a movie is a movie. And western do have trained people in propaaganda.

My 2 cents

boring movie, lone survivor was awesome, loved it, this one was wasted 10 buck in the cinema, i mean it was not completly bad but overall boring so i couldent travel with the film subconsciously

still better then most patriotic propaganda movies we make, some of the checnya movies were just bad shit and 9th squadron was overdramatic turning from a real story of a "couple killed and wounded" to everyone killed but 1 guy