American Sniper & Karmic Retribution

I saw the film American Sniper, which I thought was vastly inferior to a film I saw three times - Fury, featuring Brad Pitt who was part of a brilliant ensemble (the crew of a WWII tank). As a Buddhist, I easily concluded - as I always will - that AS got what was coming to him when he was killed by a fellow veteran on a shooting range in Texas. AS never saw it coming, just as his targets in Iraq never saw their fates coming.

When the movie opened, we see AS targeting a middle-aged Iraqi male on a cell-phone. "I see a military-aged male on a cell-phone." I thought, "You're going to kill this man on that basis alone, you MF?" Suppose an invading army had come to his hometown in Texas with orders to shoot any military-aged males who had not left town in accordance with orders from the invaders. It's easy to say, anyone who remains is a terrorist but, face it, a lot of guys can't simply just leave town. They have nowhere to go and would worry about their possessions being looted.

That Iraqi might have been on the phone with his wife, saying, "I'll be home in half an hour - I found a guy who can sell me some eggs." Fortunately, AS didn't shoot because his target moved behind a pillar, blocking his shot.

I had more sympathy for AS's counterpart, an insurgent sniper who felt he was protecting his homeland from a foreign invader. I even feel more for the insurgents who got legs and arms blown off by our guys, but don't have a Wounded Warriors project to help them out. I would rather donate my money to those guys, but I'd probably be accused of giving material support to terrorists. Let's be very clear about this much: US forces engaged in their share of terrorist acts. So I don't want to hear about how nasty the other side was.

If we in the general US population don't atone for sins committed in our name, we too shall suffer karmic retribution.

As far as karmic retribution is concerned, there is no such thing as an innocent victim. Even newborn babies who are murdered are paying the price of the evil karma they'd generated in past lives. I'm a bit surprised, though, that AS's comeuppance was visited upon him in this lifetime. So he must have had some really heavy, negative karma for that to happen. One factor I look at is the fact that he engaged in self-glorifying behavior by writing a book about his exploits. SEALS aren't supposed to be fame-seekers, since that violates their code. Oh, well,  I guess codes are made to be broken.

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Steven Searle, just another member of the
Virtual Samgha of the Lotus and
former candidate for US President (in 2008 & 2012)

Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com