The art of the sniper

IN TODAY'S SUN, they report the kill rate by a British sniper that is  higher  than that of the American  navy SEAL Bradley Cooper, whose story has just been made into the film, American Sniper, directed by Clint Eastwood. Cooper made 160 confirmed kills; while the Sun claims that a nameless British Royal Marine had 173 confirmed kills (including 90 in one day).

                

                American Sniper has proven a phenomenal success at the box office; but has been criticised by Hollywood liberals including Michael Moore, whose uncle was sadly killed by a Japanese sniper. I have sympathy for Moore; my father fought and survived the war in Burma against the same enemy as Moore's uncle. Those who fought in the jungles of Burma against the Japanese where perhaps better acquainted with the snipers art than those on many other war fronts (apart from Stalingrad). In fact it was not uncommon for the British to deploy a tank to dislodge and kill a Japanese snipers who tied themselves in position within the foliage of a tree.

                

                That Michael Moore's uncle and his comrades thought that the  sniper merited being described as a  coward is perfectly understandable. They lay in wait unseen ready to kill whoever drifted into their cross-hairs. Even snipers who were fighting for the allies were regarded as cowards by their supposed comrades.

                

                The age of chivalry died with the discovery (and its practical use in warfare) of gunpowder. In ancient and medieval times, the knights regarded the archer in the same way as Mr Moore's uncle and his thousands of  comrades regarded the sniper. Then archers were seen as dastardly recreants by all sides: but all sides used them. The archer (especially the longbow man) were specialists; specialists that turned the tide at Agincourt.

                

                 So it is with the modern sniper. Historically, snipers plied their trade  behind enemy lines, and were often more exposed to the enemy than were the ordinary infantryman. They were never then and to this day cowards. Snipers, like ancient archers, can determine the direction of a battle. The sniper usually targets the most valuable mark in their cross hairs – an officer for instance whose loss can change the direction of a battle. British snipers, for example, must have begged that they would find Rommel in their sights in North Africa… as would have Monty.

THOSE 160 KILLS BY Bradley Cooper and the 173 kills by his British associate in the art may  have saved countless of hundreds of civilian, British and American lives. Today the modern infantryman looks far more deferentially upon the sniper than did Moore's uncle and his comrades during the Second World War. Today's infantrymen are thankful that between them Bradley Cooper and his British associate made 333 confirmed kills between them, any one of which, if they had been left alive, could have killed them.

                

                The sniper is just another weapon of war just as once the archer and crossbowmen were. What if for instance Michael Moore's uncle, without knowing it, had had his own life saved by an American sniper? Would this have changed Michael Moore's opinion? I very much doubt it.

               

                Michael Moore is a febrile liberal who seeks every opportunity to undermine his country; even under the Democratic Presidency of Obama.  While the president's wife Michele Obama praised the courage of  the American sniper in the film: Moore traduces it. He is even out of place within the US Democrat community within America – apart, no doubt, from the Hollywood liberals from whom he draws his strength.

               

                These two snipers: one we know the name of because of his tragic death; but the other chooses to remain in incognito for obvious reasons. Both of them have served their respective countries with skill and honour. They both aided not only their respective nations but the democratic West as a whole by their deeds on all our behalf. But you would not have thought it if you listened to Moore, or tried to understand the Hollywood liberal elite.

              

                 From what I have read about American Sniper, it is critically  a first class film proven to be such at the box office meriting at least one academy award. But the liberal elite have posted their grievance, led by Michael Moore, as to its merit. The sniper as a coward seems to be the Hollywood liberals riposte to Clint Eastwood's film; and it will no doubt fail as a nomination for an Oscar – let alone being put in the frame for winning one.