Sunday, February 3, 2013

Uncomfortable Worshipfulness Towards a Killer (Concluded): Chris Kyle, Former Navy Seal Sniper, Killed at Texas Gun Range

The Iraq War eats its young again. There are an estimated 22 suicides by veterans each day. The Imperial misadventures of Bush, Cheney, and company continue to bear ill-fruit.

Chris Kyle, author and former U.S. Navy Seal sniper with (at least) 160 kills in Iraq was killed at a Texas gun range by a fellow veteran who he was trying to help with overcoming his post-traumatic stress disorder.

I extend my condolences to all parties involved.

As I wrote here, I was never a fan of Chris Kyle. I respect his skill at killing. But, the way in which he was feted by the Right-wing media for his deathly exploits struck me as typical, distasteful, chicken hawk cheer-leading. Kyle also seemed too proud of his exploits. He also profited from them. In all, I have more respect for quiet warriors like Alvin York, men who do their work, and want to have peace after their service is done.

Kyle's murder at a Texas gun range has invited some obvious--and well-deserved--snark from those who oppose the Gun Right's fetish for firearms as a cure all for society's ills.

If guns lead to a polite society why was Kyle killed at a gun range--surrounded by all of those guns? If guns make us safe, why couldn't an expert shooter, surrounded by others who are ostensibly very skilled with their guns, fight off his attacker? If teachers can be expected to fight off armed shooters, why couldn't one of the most lethal men on the planet use his gun to stop his murderer?

While those questions score cheap political points, we cannot forget that anyone can get got, as the saying goes, if they let their guard down. Omar from The Wire was killed by a kid at the corner spot. If it can happen to Omar (or Chris Kyle) it too can happen to me, you, or other folks far more dangerous.

War casts a long shadow. Between the blowback, a wrecked economy, and the many tens of thousands of wounded warriors returning home from battle overseas, there are likely to be many more Chris Kyles felled during peacetime.

The ancients have much wisdom to offer here. It is time we started listening to them.

The gods fail not to mark
Those who have killed many.
The black Furies stalking the man
Fortunate beyond all right
Wrench back again the set of his life
And drop him to darkness.

--AESCHYLUS, Agamemnon

9 comments:

DISGUSTED said...

Spoken like a true LIBTARD.

Shady Grady said...

You don't think "well deserved snark" over someone's murder while he was trying to help someone else crosses the line?

chauncey devega said...

What line? Please explain "this line" you speak of? Telling and uncomfortable truth? Asking a hard question?


It was snark--identified as such. I also qualified my feelings by suggesting that anyone can get "got" so to speak.


Helping someone overcome ptsd by bringing them to a gun range? There are clinicians who can chime in hopefully, and I am aware of the desensitization therapies, but such a move seemed set up for trouble from the get go.


More my important point is the poem from Agamemnon. Meditate on it.

Shady Grady said...

Chris Kyle is hardly the first veteran to have survived war zones and return home to be murdered in the US. I haven't read his book yet but it's probably fair to say politically he was to your (and my) right. Nevertheless I see no reason for anyone (as some on twitter and elsewhere have done) to joke about another human being's death, especially one that died trying to help fellow soldiers overcome the demons that followed them home.

And as far as profiting from his exploits, Kyle gave away all his royalties to the families of SEALS who died in battle.

So no, I don't find "snark" appropriate when someone is murdered. And that's true whether it's someone I agreed with politically or not.

chauncey devega said...

he made appearances, did other work, and also leveraged his experience as a private contractor. i think he also optioned his life story. as i said, i extend my condolences. was this guy a "hero?" depends on the definition. i am inclined to say no. was he brave, damn straight.


he didn't fade into the shadows and seemed to enjoy the attention. that was his choice. i can choose to disagree with that. i stand on my observation then and now that there is something deeply troubling about the fetting of a killer by the right-wing (and other) media.

chixie1023 said...

"If guns lead to a polite society why was Kyle killed at a gun range--surrounded by all of those guns? If guns make us safe, why couldn't an expert shooter, surrounded by others who are ostensibly very skilled with their guns, fight off his attacker? If teachers can be expected to fight off armed shooters, why couldn't one of the most lethal men on the planet use his gun to stop his murderer?"

That's an excellent point that some gun advocates would rather gloss over.

Dubious Brother said...

The trouble some have with Kyle is that his work away from the battlefield was to promote war, gun culture at its highest form. He became more than a "good soldier" by his own doing, and injected himself into the public debate on military policy, a cheerleader for the fools errand of the Iraq war. The irony that this extreme warrior was killed how and where he was is not lost on anyone who is paying attention to two issues that may define this nation--war policy and gun control.

From my informal survey of chat boards on this subject, it appears that there are two types of patriotism expressed in response to Kyle's murder--war patriotism and peace patriotism. Those who identify with Kyle and his war patriotism are less interested in the reasons why Kyle killed his enemies, prolifically, after just being asked to do so. The "why" is not important to those folks, and they don't ask.

Carlton said...

Amen. Dude was nothing but an unrepentant killer, not caring who he shot.

aimai said...

Beautiful post. You bring Aeschylus back to us just when we need him. I'd also like to point out that the article you link to about Kyle's book is chilling in some of its details. He describes his audience as filled with people who say "I never read a book since I had to [at school, presumably]" and the booksellers as describing these buyers of military porn as people who are saddened or frightened by actual historical or military information about the wars Kyle was fighting--they prefer a heroic tale that massages their voyeuristic jingoism, a one sided, shallow account of kills rather than of the real war and its real suffering.