The reaction of some American Christians to the recently released "American Sniper" biopic of the late US Navy SEAL Chris Kyle makes me acutely uncomfortable (not just to the film but to their nation's armed forces and governmental agencies such as CIA).

Firstly what you won't see in "American Sniper". Contrary to Chris Kyle's conflation of 9/11 and Iraq, there is NO evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any meaningful connection or association with Bin Laden's Al Qaeda( it would have been surprising if there was- for although being a brutal tyranny, the Iraqi Baathist regime was a secular( ie "apostate" in Al Qaeda's eyes) regime that allowed Christians, Druzes and other non Muslims to worship freely) .

Secondly, no evidence has emerged that Saddam possessed WMDs to begin with.

Thirdly, US and allied forces who took part in the ousting of Saddam's regime were arguably invaders attacking a country that for whatever the sins of its regime had neither attacked or even threatened to do so- and therefore the Iraqis were at least arguably justified in opposing the invading "Crusaders"( which to my lasting shame includes my own country's troops)..

Which brings me to my final point- I have long noted a propensity on the part of some American Christians to take an uncritically supportive attitude to not just their nation's armed forces( esp special forces such as the US Navy SEALs) but to governmental agencies such as the CIA and its "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding and other forms of torture, ie arguing that the Agency personnel involved in such activities were "good family men" and "true American patriots".(the same could be said of Mafia members or Axis war criminals)

Personally this "our boys can do nothing wrong" attitude amounts to my mind to a form of "idolatry"( ie giving to any secular entity or institution the sort of uncritical veneration or respect that rightfully belongs to God). The military(in both the US and UK) may very well be amongst the most respected institution in either polity but respect must NEVER be confused with uncritical veneration. To paraphase the late Cardinal Cathal Daly, we must not "absolutize the relative and relativize the absolute".

Anybody else think as I do?

Terry

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PS I am aware of the argument that the relative rights and wrongs of "regime change in Iraq" were above Kyle's pay grade; he was a soldier and went wherever he was assigned but with the benefits of hindsight does ANYBODY (soldier or civilian) think that the decison to go to war against Iraq in AMrch 2003 is justifiable in hindsight or even at the time???