American Sniper by Chris Kyle

American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History by Chris Kyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am starting with my bias because it deeply colors my entire reading of the book and therefore my review. My bias is first of all that I am one of those people who strongly supported our military personnel but thought it was fairly obvious that we should not be at war in Iraq as they had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11 and there was also clearly no evidence that they had weapons of mass destruction. I was disturbed they wouldn't allow proper inspections of course, but war is a really big commitment and precisely because I support our military people, I thought we shouldn't endanger them unless we had a really good reason. My second bias is that I am one of those super annoying good works Christians, who doesn't believe that faith alone is all it takes to be in God's (metaphorical) good graces. I know, we are the most inconvenient and annoying, but with that out of the way, I turn to the book.

I thought seeing Chris Kyle's perspective was really enlightening because his thinking is so unlike my own and so unlike that of most authors I read. Expanding the way I view the world is a huge part of the reason I read books, so 5 stars for that. I thought his point about some of the rules of war endangering servicemen and women was especially salient, and I would hope that all the military heads read his book.

My issue is that Kyle refused to engage with any kind of critical thinking or philosophy in this book and that is really important when the book is fundamentally about having the most kills in a war with a poor justification. While he claims some general philosophical protection from Christianity, and some from the demonstrated sexism and cowardliness of his opponents, I was left cold. His philosophy is not actually the philosophy of Western Judeo-Christians, but the philosophy of Roman and Greek warriors to which Judeo-Christianity sprung up in direct opposition. He is a hero very much like Achilles, celebrated for his physical might in battle. WWJD-people need not apply to this story. I appreciate the risks he took for the love of our country. I love our country: our values as a democracy, the people who live in our country, and the troops who protect it. And I appreciate his honesty throughout. And I'm sorry he was killed after his return from the war while engaged in helping a fellow veteran. But giving his gun to a veteran he knew was struggling mentally is a pretty good indication of the type of critical-thinking lack throughout this book.

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