Today, with the critically and commercially successful film “American Sniper” breaking box office records, the issues of ethical actions overseas has once again taken center stage. As has become standard, it is the contrarians and critics who speak the loudest. Chief Chris Kyle, who has become a national celebrity in the wake of his tragic death, has been the subject of much debate across the nation’s media, and there is little question as to why. Kyle’s accounts of war in his memoir, “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History” is both riveting and controversial, the late Navy SEAL pulling no punches in depicting what he saw and experienced overseas, and the many ways in which he handled the countless life and death scenarios he found himself in.

The liberal media has been quick to label Kyle a monster, a murderer, a reaper who hated the Iraqi people and reveled in their elimination through the scope of his Win-Mag sniper rifle. This article aims to challenge this criticism. This article comes from a writer who sees Kyle as a true American, a defender, a protector, a true patriot gifted with convictions that have become lost in a culture plagued by celebrity-obsession and the stink of the lazy and entitled. This article comes from a writer whose primary mission in life is to earn a place amongst the most elite of military communities: the United States Navy SEALs.

To briefly summarize my thesis, terrorism is one of many methods of communication. Like film, music, or the media, terrorism exists to send a message. It is said that Al Qaeda’s greatest accomplishment on 9/11 was not the lives it took on American soil, but the message it sent to a nation that prided itself on its strength, its power, and in many cases, its invulnerability. What Osama bin Laden accomplished altered the very mindset of the world’s greatest nation. It instilled us with a sense of paranoia and fear only comparable in the modern era to the Soviet influence of the Cold War. Almost fourteen years later, America is still reeling from the effects of this attack. For many, September 11^th ushered in a new way of life. One needs only to visit an airport to see the effects. Bin Laden replaced pride with a tentative, apologetic nature that is only seen when a super power is dealt a humiliating blow. It is men like Chris Kyle that uphold an old American tradition, one that boldly and unapologetically declares that we will not be shaken by your cowardly acts of evil, we will not cower in the face of adversity, and we will prove once again why America is not a beast to be prodded.

Director Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” is, like so many literary adaptations, a sort of “best of” collection drawn from Kyle’s autobiography. Events loosely unfold as they do in the book, with Eastwood and writer Jason Hall taking certain liberties with events and the dates they occurred.

The film’s true focus is Kyle’s metamorphosis over the course of his four tours in Iraq (roughly 1000 days overseas in combat). Kyle saw many other locations during his time in the service, but for the sake of the film’s cohesiveness and pacing, he remains in Fallujah and Ramadi. Here, the viewer is treated to the proverbial consequences of war. The film’s opening, and perhaps strongest, scene depicts Kyle’s first kill.

The scene has been well explored in trailers and analysis, with Kyle choosing to kill a woman and a young boy (10-12) acting to kill a platoon of Marines with a Russian grenade. The scene is masterfully put together, and boldly sets the stage for Kyle’s descent into posttraumatic stress disorder that haunts him upon his return trips home.

It is worth noting that Bradley Cooper’s Oscar-nominated turn as Kyle depicts the warrior as a far more vulnerable and sympathetic character than he ever attempts to appear in the book. Cooper wonderfully portrays a man asked to take literally hundreds of lives, and each kill visually weighs on him more than the last. The faint of heart be warned, Chris Kyle does not show the same remorse for his deeds, and here in lies the controversy surrounding the fallen Navy SEAL.

Much has been made of Kyle’s use of the word “savage,” his consistent labeling of the Iraqi insurgents as evil, and the simple fact that he claims to enjoy killing these people. Here also lies a disgusting misallocation of journalistic integrity, a hack job of yellow journalism by the few who would scrounge up whatever they can to smear the faces of those who sacrifice so much in the name of country. Quotes from the book are taken without context, and made to appear brutal and vicious in their nature. The truth is something far different.

Kyle goes to great lengths, not to justify his actions, but to paint a picture of the atrocities he experienced on a daily basis. He witnessed a man use his daughter as a human shield. He saw the residue of the drugs these terrorists would inject themselves with to muster the courage to kill in the name of Jihad.

These are not soldiers defending their nation from the American invaders. They are murderous fanatics who use a perverted concept of religion to satisfy their bloodlust. They carve off the heads of any who believe differently, and in one case, as shown in the film, use a power drill to bore through the skull of a child for his father’s willingness to fight back against the oppression. The examples of atrocities are plentiful, with an abundance of eyewitnesses to confirm their truth. And Kyle, the soldier, did not care what the American public had to say about the actions of American soldiers.

He, and the men serving beside him, saw true evil that had to be eliminated for the sake of a struggling and oppressed nation.

Kyle is clear in his sentiments that many Americans are simply incapable of understanding war, and the truths behind it. Every man and woman who joins a branch of the armed service recites the same oath, part of which reads, “(I swear) that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me.” Kyle, and those like him, are soldiers sent to perform a task, one that will be completed no matter the cost.

His only regrets, as stated in the book and the film, are not the lives he took, but rather the lives he couldn’t save. Kyle repeatedly put himself in harms way to ensure the survival of those around him. He was truly selfless, uncompromisingly brave, and he consistently held himself to a higher standard than any man has a responsibility to. After four tours, he still felt like a coward leaving the service, that there was more he could do, more lives he could save.

Kyle also thrived on humble pride. His accounts bring to light the SEAL mindset, one that demands an aura of invincibility, one of leadership and pride, yet one that is self-deprecating and often humorous. His wife, Taya, attests to this, calling him the kindest, most genuinely compassionate man she ever knew. This is a culture that is easily misunderstood in this contemporary America, one where men constantly push each other to determine who is the strongest in a clan of alphas, a culture where success and a drive for perfection are expected, not qualities to be attacked by those less-motivated.

That America has reached the point where such determination and patriotism can be celebrated in a mainstream Hollywood production is a monumental step in the right direction, even if Cooper’s Kyle is a slightly tamer portrayal of the man himself. With Kyle’s murder trial heavy in the media, there is little chance of the man fading from the public’s eye quickly, which means the critics will continue to scream and shout. Yet, if the success of the film is any indication, they are indeed the very vocal minority.

In one chapter of his memoir, Chris Kyle attempts to define patriotism. He recounts a moment in Iraq where an American flag was erected as the sun rose in the background. He describes the sight of the stars and the moon and the sun all within view, with the flag of his homeland waving in the gentle morning breeze. The image brought to mind the Star-Spangled Banner, and nearly brought America’s most lethal warrior to tears. He concludes, simply, that if patriotism needs to be defined for you, you will never truly understand it.