In the media’s ongoing and hysterically desperate effort to defame Chris Kyle and “American Sniper,” the film about his life, a dishonest narrative is increasingly being built around Kyle’s repeated use of the word “savages.” Kyle described only terrorists as “savages.” The media is spreading the lie that he referred to Iraqis as “savages.”
In order to falsely brand Kyle as some kind of psychotic racist, left-wing news outlets like the Washington Post and NBC News have so perfected this art of false defamation they are now matter-of-factly spreading the falsehood even though it has been repeatedly debunked.
The Washington Post’s Abby Ohlheiser doubled up on her race-hoaxing Wednesday with an article that not only repeats the false “savage” claim but takes seriously the already-disproved nonsense about “American Sniper” inspiring a drastic increase in death threats against Arabs and Muslims.
Ohlheiser reports that an Arab group has tracked “hundreds” of social media threats. Laughably, her linked examples of these threats against Muslims/Arabs amount to exactly 3. One from a man who identifies himself as “GAY and proud.
Ohlheiser seems unaware that she also links to 3 people who said “American Sniper” helped them turn away from violence. Ohlheiser’s lack of context on this matter is a whopping lie of omission. This, however, is an outright smear of Kyle: [emphasis mine]
[S]everal conservative news outlets and columnists who believe that those criticizing the film’s channeling of Kyle’s pleasure at killing Iraqis — whom he repeatedly refers to as “savages” — are out of touch with the American public. Over at Breitbart, John Nolte wrote that the ADC’s claims were a “hoax,” promoted by the media simply because they don’t like “American Sniper” or its fans.
Note how Ohlheiser matter-of-factly reports of ” Kyle’s pleasure at killing Iraqis — whom he repeatedly refers to as “savages”.
There are two humongous lies in those 12 short words.
- Kyle does not refer to Iraqis as “savages.” He correctly refers to terrorists as “savages.” Conflating Iraqis with terrorists is Ohlheiser’s doing, not Kyle’s.
In Ohlheiser’s journalistic defense, maybe she’s a racist who sees all Iraqis as terrorists. That would make her a terrible person but explain her myopic reporting skills.
- Kyle never expressed any pleasure towards killing Iraqis. Kyle didn’t kill Iraqis. He killed terrorists and did so in self defense to protect innocent Iraqis and American troops from imminent harm.
NBC News is matter-of-factly spreading the same lie the Washington Post is:
Many people also objected to the film’s portrayal of Kyle — a man who described Iraqis as “savages” in his memoir — as a hero.
While the movie makes clear that Kyle’s remarks about “savages” are intended only for savage terrorists, National Review’s Ian Tuttle points out that the same is true of Kyle’s biography, where he clearly differentiates between the “enemy” and “Iraqis loyal to the new government.”
The use of the word “savages,” which has occasioned so much antipathy, requires context, too. “Savage, despicable evil. That’s what we were fighting in Iraq,” Kyle writes in the book’s prologue. “There really was no other way to describe what we encountered there.” The word “savage” appears seven times in Kyle’s book. “Brown” appears five times — to describe Kyle’s clothing, a cloud, and buildings.
Here is an excerpt from Kyle’ own biography:
People ask me all the time, “How many people have you killed?” My standard response is, “Does the answer make me less, or more, of a man?”
The number is not important to me. I only wish I had killed more. Not for bragging rights, but because I believe the world is a better place without savages out there taking American lives. Everyone I shot in Iraq was trying to harm Americans or Iraqis loyal to the new government.
I had a job to do as a SEAL. I killed the enemy — an enemy I saw day in and day out plotting to kill my fellow Americans.
The Washington Post and NBC News are spreading lies about an American war hero who served with honor and distinction, volunteered for four tours of duty in Iraq, and saved countless American and Iraqi lives.
Here’s NBC’s own Willie Geist clearing up this lie on “Morning Joe”:
It wasn’t a commentary about the war. It wasn’t about the politics of the war. It was a character study of what this guy went through. And you don’t have to like him and all the comments about him calling Iraqis savages. He was calling the people he was shooting savages. He was calling people who he thought had IEDs, who he thought were going to kill his buddies savages. He didn’t — some people have seized on that term that he thought all Iraqis or everyone in the Middle East is a savage. That’s just not what he said. It’s not what he said. He was talking about the people he was fighting in the theater, calling them savages.
John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC