In another era, that’s what American Sniper would have been called. Every war has had them on all sides. To pantywaists like Fatso Moore, who never served and never will, they seem like murderers because they don’t fight in the open and take their chances of being killed.
But sharpshooters (or snipers) have been killed in all wars when they shot off more than a few rounds without moving their positions. Especially in the Civil War when black-powder ammunition produced a two-foot flame out the business end of a rifle. Easy to spot, that flame, and then pick off the sharpshooter.
The cool thing about the movie is that its unexpected success shows that Hollyweird’s predictable anti-war movie of the last thirty-plus years, and seemingly endless denigration of American combat veterans, finally may be nearing eclipse. As Sultan Knish puts it, American Sniper treats the Iraq campaign like World War II, with American heroes.
Talk about heresy in progressive media-land. Talk about an overdue relief for veterans and their supporters.
Via Instapundit.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
As I told you (I believe), I read the book. Definitely a remarkable man, Chris Kyle was, and the manner of his death only supports this statement. As for snipers: someone wrote that these are the people an average GI hates the most. I, however, always thought about them as an act of fate, where no matter what I do or think will change the outcome.
And yes, people who claim that snipers are cowards don’t know much, usually, about this business. Snipers are hunted too.
Now movie: from what I read about it, it is quite heavily influenced by Hollywood, and I am not sure I am going to watch it. The book tells it all quite well for me.
Didn’t read the book and probably won’t see the movie. Books and movies almost never match up. After doing Lord of The Rings proud they thoroughly screwed up The Hobbit.
Guy I knew in OCS was killed by a VC/NVA sniper who was hunting officers that day. They used to shoot at me all the time, whether I was on foot or driving a jeep. Fortunately they always missed, though they were usually close enough for me to hear the bullets sing by.
A Union general in the Civil War famously bragged that a Rebel sharpshooter “couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance” right before he was killed by one.