Most of the media has focussed on whether American Sniper is accurate as if that's what the controversy about the movie is all about.
So it's worth noting that a number of soldiers have come forward to condemn the film--not because it's inaccurate, but because the message it conveys about the war is propagandistic and plays down what a disaster the Iraq War was for both Iraq and the United States.
We need to start compiling these pieces so the attack on the movie doesn't seem like it's just coming from lefties. Soldiers are horrified and angry too. If you know of other pieces, please add them here!
Adrian Bonenberger makes what I think are some of the best points--
This reflects a truth that the movie itself seeks to avoid: War is political, and a movie about war is bound to make political pronouncements. When you sit down to enjoy American Sniper, you are committing a political act, and your evaluation of the movie, and Kyle as a person, reflects your political attitudes...
We need a fictional movie with a plot, with a narrative, that isn't afraid to acknowledge certain truths about war: namely, that there are no heroes. There are no good guys. Killing doesn't lead to epiphany or to personal truth, save as a horrified revelation of human guilt. The people who thrive at war accept some of war's hatred inside them. This does not make American soldiers or the Muslim fighters we call terrorists heroes or monsters—it makes them human.
Ross Caputi, a former Marine who participated in the 2nd Siege of Fallujah, writes about the glaring omissions in American Sniper. By focusing on the story of an individual rather than the larger context of the war, the movie spares us from asking tough questions about the war.
The criminality that has characterized American military engagements since the American Indian Wars, and most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, is hardly noticeable in this film. And that’s exactly my point... the most insightful part of this film is what is not in it.
Brock McIntosh, who fought in the war in Afghanistan, takes issue with the movie's portrayal of the American military as deeply concerned about the morality of its actions.
In the movie’s first scene, Cooper faces a moral dilemma that never happened in real life. Cooper suspects a boy is preparing to send an improvised explosive device, or IED, toward a convoy of approaching Marines on the streets of Fallujah. Either he kills a child or the child kills Marines. A soldier next to Cooper warns, “They’ll send your ass to Leavenworth if you’re wrong.” In writing this line, Hall implies that killing civilians is a war crime and U.S. military members are sent to prison for it. If U.S. soldiers, including Kyle, don’t seem to be getting punished for killing civilians, then they must not be killing civilians.
Garett and I agreed that even if that boy was a civilian, nothing would have happened to Cooper for shooting him. Both of us were trained to take detailed notes with the understanding that if something went wrong, it would be corrected in the report. Americans were responsible for thousands of Iraqi deaths and almost none were held accountable.