With an Islamist Attitude

The words couldn’t be defined more differently: The German-English dictionary translates “trigger happy” as “schiesswütig” and the word is used to describe anyone in Germany who shoots a gun indiscriminately causing occasional injury and/or death. In America, it can mean anyone who gets pleasure from shooting firearms. And it’s that pleasure that many Americans adamantly insist they be allowed to keep. That’s why they are against any attempt to strengthen gun ownership laws even in the wake of the most horrific shooting massacres in their nation.

It’s no wonder then that a film about the most successful American sniper in the Iraq war has already garnered six Oscar nominations and taken in over $200 million in the first 10 days after its release. With it, Clint Eastwood has staged a great epic in which American soldiers face an ugly and devious enemy. He celebrates their heroism with dynamic visual sequences and their mourning with brutal directness. The latter is the reason for all the debate in the U.S. which is developing along predictable lines: On one hand, a few critical liberals such as Michael Moore have condemned the film, and on the other, it’s defended by conservatives like Sarah Palin. Vice President Joe Biden was finally just moved to tears by it.

Noted U.S. journalist Gary Younge wrote in The Guardian that the movie audience cheered when the American hero killed an Iraqi sniper with a long-distance shot. In view of the Paris shootings, Younge mused that, “. . . within a few weeks of the developed world uniting to defend western culture and Enlightenment values, it produces a popular celluloid hero who is tasked not with satirizing Islam, but killing Muslims. Threats to Arab and Muslim Americans have tripled since the film came out, according to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. It’s not difficult to see why. ‘If you see anyone from about 16 to 65 and they’re male, shoot ’em,’ wrote Kyle, describing his understanding of the rules of engagement in Iraq. ‘Kill every male you see. That wasn’t the official language, but that was the idea.’”

This attitude is constantly reflected by the film. Chris Kyle’s values aren’t exactly those of the Enlightenment but the priorities of God, country and family. Younge says that makes Kyle a jihadi in uniform, scarcely distinguishable from his archenemy Mustafa.