American Liar

American Liar: Chris Kyle's problems with the truth.

"American sniper" Chris Kyle has almost  become a national idol.  He is/was  not, by any means, the only sniper deployed to a war zone over the course of the last 10 years, he is however, the only one to return and become a media darling, primarily due to his death and the lies he told before it to "embroider" his reputation with a public who only knows him through his book and the movie made based on it. Billed as "autobiographical" the book is heavily ghost written. The movie, based on the book is, as movies are, an entertainment first, star vehicle second and truth, such as it is, a distant third.     His death was lamentable, but then so is his post-mortem deification, in light of the (at least) five huge lies he told to gain notoriety  Do we really want our children to look up to a liar?

The movie was engineered to give America something it's lacked since the start of the war -- a war hero on a truly national, cultural scale...with the success of this movie, Chris Kyle has entered the pantheon of American warriors ... giving a new generation of young boys a warrior-hero to look up to, to emulate. After all, our kids' heroes shouldn't be, must never be,  exclusively quarterbacks, rappers, or point guards.

No one, including the producers of the movie has ever claimed that Chris Kyle is Jesus. Every human being has flaws. It is critical to point out however,  that  he risked no more and probably far less than the thousands upon thousands of anonymous soldiers and Marines who fought house-to-house during their own turns downrange. It is also worthy of consideration  that, while his fame is largely self generated, he had a very tenuous relationship with the truth. let me rephrase that, Chris Kyle was a liar on an epic scale,  examples follow:

#1 Lie:  Kyle claimed he beat-up Jesse Ventura in a bar for making disparaging remarks about NAVY SEALS and the war in Iraq:

Like Ventura or don't, (I don't) Jesse Ventura sued for defamation and won a $1.8 million settlement which Kyle's wife is appealing. Once the trial actually began, however, the truth began to emerge. For instance, Kyle, who sat for a lengthy video deposition prior to his death, was inconsistent in his story. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune describes the testimony:  "Afternoon testimony may have shifted some sympathy to Ventura's side. In the deposition, videotaped a year before his death, Chris Kyle said he could not remember who told him that Ventura had hit his head when he fell to the sidewalk, could not recall how he learned that Ventura had a black eye, and conceded that tables did not go "flying" during the 2006 confrontation in a bar near San Diego, which he described in his book "American Sniper."

#2 Lie: Shot dozens of looters while he was on top of the New Orleans Superdome after Hurricane Katrina :

A spokesman for U.S. Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, told The New Yorker, "...There were no West Coast SEALs deployed to Katrina." When I related this account to one of Kyle's officers, he replied, sardonically, "I never heard that story." The SEAL with extensive experience in special-mission units wondered how dozens of people could be shot by high-velocity rifles and just disappear; Kyle's version of events, he said, "defies the imagination."

#3 Lie: Shot 2 men who tried to carjack him in TX:

Tommy Bryant, the sheriff of Erath County, told a reporter that he could "guar-an-damn-tee it didn't happen here." Greg Doyle, the sheriff of Somervell County, said that he had "never heard" the story, which he found "kinda shocking," and added, "It did not occur here." Bob Alford, the sheriff of Johnson County, told a local reporter, "If something like that happened here I would have heard of it, and I'm sure you all at the newspaper would have heard of it."

#4 Lie: Found WMD's in Iraq

Another lie Chris Kyle tells in his book is about those pesky missing WMDs.  Here is the passage: 'At another location, we found barrels of chemical material that was intended for use as biochemical weapons. Everyone talks about there being no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but they seem to be referring to completed nuclear bombs, not the many deadly chemical weapons or precursors that Saddam had stockpiled."

If he really found WMD's, the CIA, George Bush, Jr., and Tony Blair would have called a press conference to exonerate themselves for attacking Iraq based on false evidence.

#5 Lie: Donated 100% of Book Profits

An article in the Blaze definitively proclaimed: "A perfect reflection of his character, Kyle gave all proceeds from his best-selling book American Sniper to the families of soldiers killed in combat."   Kyle himself perpetuated this idea, telling the same "all proceeds-went-to-charity" tale to the Texas News Service and even adding that he regularly received tearful calls and letters of thanks.

Here's the problem: It isn't true. It isn't even remotely close to being true! Out of the staggering $3 million that American Sniper collected in royalties for Kyle, only $52,000 actually went to the families of fallen servicemen. (Rather than 100 percent of the proceeds, as the public was led to believe, try 2 percent!)"

CONCLUSION(s)

If Chris Kyle was willing, as has been proven, to lie about such easily debunked things here in America, why should we blindly consider his war stories as categorical truth?
According to The New Yorker, "Like many soldiers, Kyle was deeply religious and saw the Iraq War through that prism. He tattooed one of his arms with a red crusader's cross, wanting 'everyone to know I was a Christian.'"   Really? Did he act in a "Christian" manner?
He was a hypocrite and an unrepentant liar. While some may differ, in fact, patriotism is not a Christian virtue. Patriotism is amoral/neutral depending on the justice of the cause. And the Iraq war was NOT a just cause. False patriotism is war profiteers' trick to motivate naïve citizens and soldiers to support their wars.

In contrast, another Cavalry Scout sniper  Garett Reppenhagen, writes:

"...Unlike Chris Kyle, who claimed his PTSD came from the inability to save more service members, most of the damage to my mental health was what I call "moral injury," which is becoming a popular term in many veteran circles.

As a sniper I was not usually the victim of a traumatic event, but the perpetrator of violence and death. My actions in combat would have been more acceptable to me if I could cloak myself in the belief that the whole mission was for a greater good. Instead, I watched as the purpose of the mission slowly unraveled.  I served in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. During that time, we started to realize there were no weapons of mass destruction, the 9/11 commission report determined that Iraq was not involved in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, false sovereignty was given to Iraq by Paul Bremer, the atrocities at Abu Ghraib were exposed, and the Battle of Fallujah was waged.

The destruction I took part in suddenly intersected with news that our reasons for waging war were untrue. The despicable conduct of those at Abu Ghraib was made more unforgivable by the honorable interactions I had with Iraqi civilians, and, together, it fueled the post-traumatic stress I struggle with today. My war was completely different than Chris Kyle's war..."

(ed note: Perhaps the real difference is in the character of  Mr Reppenhagen and the lack of same in Mr. Kyle.)

here's a footnote related by a former SEAL TEAM member in response to another Kyle article:

 "According to a member of Kyle's SEAL Team 3, Brandon Webb, and actor Pat Kilbane, Kyle told them in a bar conversation that he and another SEAL had driven to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and Kyle killed over 30 'looters' from the top of the Astrodome.   U.S. Special Operations Command, or SOCOM has responded that there were no "West Coast SEALs deployed to Katrina." 

If Kyle was actually telling the truth about his exploits, which include over a hundred killings in addition to his official SEAL record of 165 "clean" kills, he would be liable for dozens of counts of murder in the United States alone.   But Kyle himself told a reporter from 'D Magazine' (Dallas) that he had special phone number for police which resulted in no police records related to his 'extra curricular' kills, foreign and domestic. 

I know there's a lot more to the story that's been white washed over by all the publicity.  I suspect Kyle's "adrenaline Jones" for killing didn't end with his last deployment.  If he really had special immunity - quite possible if he was a covert hit-man for a government agency - CRAFT International would be a great cover for a Homeland Security version of 'Murder Inc.'   If that were the case, maybe he was killed for shooting his mouth off too much.   One thing's for sure - he was worth far more dead to the propaganda machine that he'd be if he were alive to continue sticking his foot in his mouth"