Thank you James Carroll for putting words to the discomfort surrounding the use of the word hero for Kyle. I too am glad that he was kept up at night and felt some ambiguity about his work. I can't help but wonder if the message to his killer was one of "manning up".I just finished reading _Kill Anything that Moves- by Nick Turse about the mass killing of innocent veitnamese during that war. It is scary to think that some racist nut might, at some point, be put in charge of a drone. The impact of gossip, jealousy, backstabbing and the desire to be a hero on the decision of who is a terrorist are real concerns when it comes to the use of weapons meant to protect American lives.

One has to pay attention reading Carroll's twisted opinions.

Here is an example: "He shot them from secure positions".  It is apparent that Carroll either sped read the book, or is intentionally misleading us.  Those "secure positions" frequently came under withering attack, indeed, one of Kyle's best friends died in such an attack.  That is hardly a "secure position".

Here is another neat trick employed by Carroll: "he killed one of his victims, he said, from more than a mile away"

Enemy combatants are "victims" and they are assigned to Kyle's killing ways.  Then, Carroll neatly inserts the "he said" to imply that Kyle may be lying about the distance involved.  Carroll had many choices constructing this sentence.  Here is an example: "One of the enemy was shot from more than a mile away."  But Carroll prefers to label a hero a killer, enemy combatants as victims and Kyle as a potential liar.

Notice also that Carroll rants a long time about Kyle before he finally writes about the drone warfare (I do agree with him about this).

Carroll neatly entered the priesthood to avoid the Vietnam war, then conveniently left it soon after the war ended.  He is still living with his own personal demons and trying to justify himself, or not.  It is apparent that he still views our military men as killers and enemy combatants as victims.  How sad.

From reading Carroll's comments over a considerable period of time, I have become accustomed to his recurring theme of negativity and guilt.  He fires this opprobrium with a liberal's accuracy of hitting the wrong target.  "History Is Just That" points out the devious words used to sculpt our opinions to his (Carroll's) point of view.

Kyle has expressed his anguish about shooting the woman carrying a grenade.  If she had accomplished her mission of killing one of our soldiers, Carroll does not even recognize the anguish felt by the loved ones of the dead soldiers.

Carroll's lopsided opinions need to be unmasked and recognized for what they are:  Carroll's Demons.

A hero, worthy of a nations respect.

Even if the degenerates like Carroll don't like it.

Quite often Carroll can go off the deep end I don't think this is one of those times.  I really don't understand some of the criticism regarding this article.  Carroll raises issues that many a solider has wrestled with and from reading accounts of other snipers, that each of them must wrestle with.  I can only assume that some of Carroll's critics have never taken aim and killed another human being or have been in fire fights and seen the dead and mangled and wondered if you had caused any of the carnage. 

I did not read Carroll in fact denigrating Kyle but simply raising the very same issues that Kyle himself raised, wrestled with himself.  It is easy for the armchair warriors to talk about blowing away the enemy or they all deserve death but for the man doing the killing the question of his own morality of his own behavior is always there, unless of course he is in some fashion incapable of questioning his own morality.

The soldier while at one place in his being recognizes the value and the importance of what he does, even the morality of it, but the man, if he is a man at all, stays awake some nights wondering just exactly who he is and what he has taken away.

Kyle was a soldier and from everything that I know a good one and did not deserve the end he received.  But like all soldiers who survive conflict they don't consider themselves nor are they heroes, they are merely men who did their duty as best that they could. 

Kyle deserves both are respect and the recognition of his humanity, that I don't think Carroll diminished but merely, tried to shine a light on.

Carroll must have served in a different army. Oops I forgot he avoided it. The soldiers I know all admired the snipers for their skill and bravery.

Thank you Mr. Carroll. You are one of the rare voices who speak up clearly for life, against killing and death.

War and technology, technology and war is the real subject. Chris Kyle was a part of that cutting edge warfare. Ever since gun powder was invented, someone had to pull the trigger. War has changed drastically. There are no longer frontlines as we knew them. We are not a "sniper nation" whatever that means. We are a nation committed to defend our country and protect our citizens with whatever tools we have available. Frontlines are not just in foreign lands where our military is assigned to fight. Frontlines are at airports where passengers are screened and at schools where children learn and at movie theaters, courthouses, school buses, transportation centers, shopping malls, college campuses and anywhere else where people are gathered.