What I Learned of War <br>From Chris Kyle —<br>And From My Cousin Billy
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The guilty verdict in the trial of the former marine who murdered Chris Kyle, the heroic “American Sniper,” may provide a measure of closure to the moral melodrama surrounding the American military role in Iraq. Kyle, the Navy SEAL marksman who believed that fighting a war meant winning it, challenged the anti-war narrative, which in recent years has consigned the United States to the nether realms of immorality. In his life and death, he came to personify American heroism and villainy.
Since the end of World War II – especially in Viet Nam and Iraq – American military power has been morally suspect and increasingly vilified. The toll of American soldiers who fought and died – in vain, anti-war critics alleged – peaked at 58,000 in Viet Nam. For the current generation, the war in Iraq has been its cherished immoral war, resulting in 4,500 military deaths (only 1,500 more than the number of American civilian fatalities on 9/11).
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