American Sniper and "Sniper G.I. Style"

Ten-Hut!

There's been some controversy about the movie American Sniper...

Especially in regards to filmmaker Michael Moore's comments...

Lots of talk about snipers this weekend (the holiday weekend of a great man [Martin Luther King, Jr], killed by a sniper), so I thought I'd weigh in with what I was raised to believe about snipers,"

My dad was in the First Marine Division in the South Pacific in World War II.

His brother, my uncle, Lawrence Moore, was an Army paratrooper and was killed by a Japanese sniper 70 years ago next month.

He explained that his views were passed down to him by his father.

My dad always said, 'Snipers are cowards.
They don't believe in a fair fight.
Like someone coming up from behind you and coldcocking you.
Just isn't right.
It's cowardly to shoot a person in the back'.
Only a coward will shoot someone who can't shoot back. I don't think most Americans think of snipers as heroes...

Here's a never-reprinted feature from Aviation Press' Contact Comics #7 (1945) with a World War II perspective on both American and enemy snipers...

Note: the portrayal of Japanese soliders may be NSFW.

So, Americans always had a love/hate relationship with the concept of snipers.

When the enemy does it, it's bad.

But, when we do it, it's good.

In Moore's case, a relative was killed by one, his father was understandably bitter about the circumstances, and his dad's bitterness colored Moore's opinion of the subject matter of the movie.

Doesn't make Moore any less patriotic than the next guy.

Personally, I'm more offended by the movie's portrayal of all Arabs on an even more racist level than the Japanese and Germans in this 1940s piece.

At least we had the excuse we were less sophisticated as a society back then.
What's the excuse now?

Until next time...

Dis-smissed!