In recent weeks, a controversy has taken the public eye surrounding the Clint Eastwood movie “American Sniper.” On the one hand, some have been quick to point out the eerie similarities between “American Sniper” and Nazi war propaganda. On the other, violent threats have been made in the name of “support the troops.”
In total, the film has grossed over $200 million and is expected to make far more while being nominated for numerous academy awards. However, “American Sniper” is far more than eerily similar to Nazi propaganda, and it is far from “supporting the troops.” In fact, “American Sniper” is far worse.
“American Sniper” is a film that reinforces racism to promote imperialism, effectively re-writing the historical narrative of the Iraq war. Furthermore, it exploits millions of veterans and service members to bring hundreds of millions of dollars into the hands of Hollywood executives, CEOs and investors. All this while millions of Iraqi women, men and children lay dead or displaced or left to live in a country destroyed, and while millions of veterans are homeless and killing themselves at rates unseen in American history.
‘American Sniper’ a tool of racism
One of the most devastating impacts “American Sniper” has on people around the planet is its racist tone. From start to finish, Arab people are depicted as inherently terrorist from birth to death, both men and women. In the opening scene, children are seen as terrorists, women are seen as terrorists, and “outside” Al Qaeda members are torturing local communities to be terrorists.
Not coincidentally, this is the same line I was told by my command when I deployed to Ramadi, Iraq, in 2005 as a Marine infantryman. I was told by command that I was deployed to Iraq to liberate people from terrorists, to being democracy, and most importantly that “today’s women breed tomorrow’s children who grow up to be next week’s terrorists, so there is no such thing as innocent.”
However, when I patrolled neighborhoods devastated by 50 caliber bullets, as I marched past schools and hospitals bombed to the ground, and as I raided home after home dragging families from their beds and ripping them apart with sandbags and zip ties, I began to see that the real terrorists were not the people of Iraq but the occupation forces. It was not the people of Iraq that were bringing terrorism, destruction and death upon innocent people but the bankers, weapons contractors, oil tycoons, and the U.S. government.
Consequently, the racist nature of “American Sniper” has brought out some of the most open and hostile racist sentiments among Americans since 9-11-2001. Every media outlet, from memes on Instagram to threats on Twitter and Facebook, have been flooded with extreme racism. One tweet proclaimed: “Nice to see a movie where the Arabs are portrayed for who they really are—vermin scum intent on destroying us.” Another tweet stated, “As a male if you watched American Sniper and you weren’t inspired to kill sand n****rs then you might as well have a vagina.”
Yet, just one year after the Iraq war began, in 2004, over 50 percent of Americans had turned against the war. Subsequently, as the largest anti-war movement in contemporary history mounted and launched its militant resistance to the war, by 2009 between 60-70 percent of Americans were openly opposed, specifically because they felt the war was based on lies. In one of the largest landslides in U.S. history, the American people elected a president who claimed to be the “anti-war candidate.” The American public was clear: The U.S. occupation of Iraq was a war of economic plunder and imperialism and had nothing to do with combating terrorism.
Racism a tool of imperialism
Movies like “American Sniper” flip the true historical narrative of the Iraq war on its head. Despite the largest anti-war movement in contemporary history, which began mobilizing from the very beginning of the occupation, the makers of “American Sniper” wish to re-write the historical narrative. While millions of people around the planet took to the streets between 2003 and 2011 to demand an end to the U.S. occupation, capitalist media, news outlets, universities and politicians continue to defend the Iraq war as a one of “liberation.”
“American Sniper” perpetuates the false history that the war in Iraq was a war for democracy and to protect American lives from savage Arabs, who are inherently terrorist. Despite the fact that in 2003 it became public fact that large-scale torture, sexual violence, and even child rape had occurred at Abu Ghraib prison, despite the exposure of the U.S. torture facility at Guantanamo, and despite millions of Iraqi women, men and children murdered, tortured and displaced in a war for economic empire, the capitalist class is attempting to maintain the historical narrative that occupying the people of the Middle East was just.
‘American Sniper’ supports Hollywood CEOs and investors, not the troops
While the racist defenders of “American Sniper” flood social media with racism and support for the war, their platform rests on the “support our troops” motto. However, it should be made clear that in absolutely no way whatsoever does supporting “American Sniper” and its racist imperialist agenda even begin to “support the troops.” In total, the movie will make hundreds of millions of dollars, which will go directly into the pockets of executives, investors and other millionaires. While to date the movie has grossed over $200 million, there are hundreds of thousands of veterans lying under bridges, pushed into halfway houses, and struggling just to eat. Recent studies show that well over 25 veterans per day commit suicide, and the unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans has remained over double the national average, reaching as high as 30 percent during the wars. In fact, the very first person to be executed by the government in 2015 was Andrew Brannan.
‘American Sniper’ not a people’s movie but a movie for the rich
What is clear is that “American Sniper” is not only eerily similar to Nazi war propaganda but it is U.S. war propaganda. It is a racist imperialist movie that rewrites the history of the Iraq war, inspires racism, defends imperialism and exploits millions of veterans struggling to eat to bring hundreds of millions of dollars into the hands of the rich. It does this because the system itself is based on racism, imperialism and the exploitation of poor and working people around the planet. Poor youth are plucked from working-class streets in America and sent to fight and die killing poor working people in Iraq so the billionaires on Wall Street and their millionaire counterparts in the halls of Congress can turn super-profits. The media, the news and all the apparatus of communication is owned privately by these very same billionaires. Movies like “American Sniper” are just another one of their propaganda pieces that poisons the minds of the American people with racism in order to continue their agenda to invade, occupy and plunder Arab people.
It is up to us to fight back against movies like “American Sniper.” We should demand this movie and all similar propaganda pieces be immediately and permanently removed from the mass media, and profits immediately expropriated and used to provide reparations to the Iraqi people as they struggle to survive in a country devastated by occupation. All other profits should be used to provide housing, quality health care and education to the millions of veterans suffering from severe post-traumatic stress.
