jhungary
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Just depends on how you interpret this movie, while on the surface its all about good vs evil.. a subtle hint on Kyle's obsession with protection and not what he was doing and for what reasons is shown in the movie. There are various narratives on the real Kyle; some are coherent with the movie whilst others say kyle was a redneck who routinely boast of his kills.
In the end, considering the script.. Eastwood has done justice in a way that only those looking for smallest changes in expression and emotion will see. Its not about good vs evil, but its about the protecting those whom you care about. Even as the wrong reasons for GW-II start to hit "kyle", he suppresses these under the guise of being the protector. The narrative about Mustafa, the Butcher and all cater to the usual "Slam bam thank you maam" audience back here..but at the same time the idea of why what was done was done is shown. They were soldiers, under orders.. and at the end had to make up their reasons to fight and survive.
@jhungary
As i said, the politic is not in play in this movie, believe it or not, i did think Eastwood trying to downtone the war in Iraq, instead of glorify it.
This movie would have made exactly the same if a different war was used as the backdrop. You can literally interchange the name of person and the war to anything War after WW1.
This story is about a small time kid feel compelled to join the military and he was send to war, the kid once think he is invincible but then some how he met a woman in a bar and got married, and things change, he was torn between serving his country or.serving his family, and as he progess further into the war, he is changed, he became ignoring and rough around the edges, he became disassociated, and his family want him back home, and he did, but feels cant adjust and the sense of duty keep him going back to war, simply because, your buddies is still there.
Finally his wife offer him an ultimatum and he came back home for good and he have to face the demon, while he is rotting away in a foreign battlefield, he now have to gather or rally his last once of sanity and try to be a human again, and he did, but he was killed way too young.
This is what basically the story is, it doesnt matter which wa, its all going to be the same, my dad fought in Nam, my brother fought in somalia my grand father fought in Europe and I fought in Iraq and afghanistan, places change yet the story stays the same, Me, My brother, My father share the same story as Chris Kyle, that is a common ground of a soldier.
This is what I see in this movie, i dont see war movie often, especially the one I been in, I still suffer from PTSD and looking at something that close to home bring back a lit of bad memories, I even serve the same time and in the same AO with chris kyle and i heard the legend first hand.
As i dont really like any movie, movie is a movie, its something you kill 1 and a half or 2 hours with, so i am not gonna say i like this movie but i did see myself in this movie, probably every grunt from any given country would have the same feeling i do.
Iraqi Sniper: The legendary insurgent who claimed to have killed scores of American troops
A still of a video tribute to the Iraqi sniper known as 'Juba' appears as propaganda online.Photo: Internet Archive
In American Sniper, the wildly successful yet controversial film that tells the story of Chris Kyle, said to be the most lethal sniper in US military history, the titular marksman has a clear foe: A mysterious insurgent dubbed "Mustafa," believed to be a former Syrian Olympian.
While the film portrays Mustafa as a mighty rival to Kyle, in the autobiographical book upon which the film is based, Mustafa earns just one paragraph."From the reports we heard, Mustafa was an Olympics marksman who was using his skills against Americans and Iraqi police and soldiers," Kyle wrote. "Several videos had been made and posted, boasting of his ability. I never saw him, but other snipers later killed an Iraqi sniper we think was him."
Propaganda videos made by the Iraqi insurgency can still be found showing footage of US soldiers being killed by an Iraqi sniper known as 'Juba'. Photo: Internet Archive
It's not clear who Mustafa was or if he ever existed, but there were similar legends of Iraqi insurgent snipers. Probably the most famous was that of "Juba," a sniper with the Sunni insurgent group Islamic Army in Iraq, whose exploits were touted in several videos released between 2005 and 2007. Some attributed scores, even hundreds, of kills to the sniper, and accounts from the time suggest that he got deep under US troops' skins.
"He's good," Specialist Travis Burress, a sniper based in Camp Rustamiyah near Baghdad, told the Guardian in 2005. "Every time we dismount, I'm sure everyone has got him in the back of their minds. He's a serious threat to us."
According to ABC News, one video claiming to show "Juba" showed at least a dozen attacks on US troops. In that video, the sniper claimed to have killed 143 US service members. "He definitely knows what to do with a rifle," Major John Plaster, a retired Green Beret sniper instructor, told ABC upon seeing the tape. "And he has the judgment and discipline to take a shot, wisely choose an escape route, and immediately depart to avoid capture. This is not a zealot; this is a calculated shooter."
"Juba" even sent a message to the US president in one video. "I have nine bullets in this gun and I have a present for George Bush," the sniper tells the camera. "I am going to kill nine people."
Snipers have long been a terrifyingly evocative feature of warfare: Soviet sniper Vasily Zaytsev was said to have killed more than 200 Germans during the Battle of Stalingrad, though his famous duel with a German rival is probably a myth. Finnish sniper Simo Hayha became a national hero after he killed more than 500 Soviet soldiers during the 1939-1940 Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union.
In Iraq, where much of the fighting was taking place in urban areas, US troops seemed especially vulnerable to snipers. The Islamic Army in Iraq's distribution of DVDs showing the sniper operating in Baghdad seemed to be a successful act of psychological warfare.
After a couple of years, "Juba" seems to have ceased activity. Some have suggested that the sniper must have been killed, while others say that no one sniper ever actually existed. "Juba the Sniper? He's a product of the US military," Captain Brendan Hobbs told Stars and Stripes in 2007. "We've built up this myth ourselves." Certainly, some of the higher death tolls attributed to Juba seem far-fetched.
However, the legend of Juba lives on online. Many videos claiming to show "Juba" in action still float around the internet, purportedly showing the mysterious sniper picking off American personnel. At one point, there was even a website and blog that claimed to have been set up by the "Baghdad sniper" with messages in English and French. A few years ago, rumours circulated on conspiracy websites that "Juba" had been – shock! – an Israeli agent all along.
Much like the Mustafa of "American Sniper," at some point the legend of Juba seems to have become intertwined with that of Chris Kyle. Kyle is said to have had his own nickname among the insurgents – "The Devil of Ramadi" – and his high kill rate likely struck fear into them. When Alex Horton, a former infantryman in Iraq, wrote a remembrance of Kyle for the New York Times, he referenced the Iraqi sniper.
"For American troops, Juba was a terror, but for the insurgents, he must have been a comforting legend," Horton wrote. "I'm willing to bet Iraqi insurgents had the same debates and fears about the Devil of Ramadi that we did about Juba."
The Washington Post
Iraqi Sniper: The legendary insurgent who claimed to have killed scores of American troops
Like the article said, there was NO MUSTAPHA. But there was JUBA. Point.
oh my god....That article did not proof anything, no where kn the article did it mention anything about this Juba person did exist, if you carefully read the article , it uses claim, suggested not verified and confirmed.
Tho the article did use verified and confirm the kills and status of some "KNOWN" famous sniper such as Simo and Kyle itself
The article suggested the legend of Juba did exist but fail to give any proof, and the article itself uses careful wording to make sur3 they are not to he hold accountable to say Juba did exist....
As far as i concern, both Mustafa and Juba both were urban legend