"Why we fear and admire the military sniper" Topic

"CHRIS KYLE, the Navy SEAL in the new film ¡°American Sniper,¡± is a guardian angel: He picks off Iraqi insurgents from afar, saving his comrades before they even realize they were in the enemies¡¯ sights. In real life, Kyle, who wrote the 2012 memoir on which the movie is based, is confirmed to have killed at least 160 enemy fighters, many in exactly this scenario, and it¡¯s possible that a similar number of Americans owe their lives to him.

Kyle is the dark hero of Clint Eastwood¡¯s movie, which opened today in Boston. But that is an upgrade to military snipers¡¯ historical reputation, even among those fighting on the same side. In past wars, snipers¡¯ fellow soldiers and Marines have viewed them with suspicion, turning cold shoulders to the men widely perceived to have the coldest hearts in the US military.

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Snipers, who make up only a small percent of men in combat units, are in some ways the opposite of ordinary infantrymen. Modern combat training has taught soldiers to aim and fire their weapons, but there is some evidence that until recently the average soldier rarely fired his weapon accurately or killed anyone. Snipers, by contrast, aim to kill with every pull of the trigger. When other soldiers kill¡ªespecially with artillery or air strikes¡ªtheir victims are often too far away to see clearly; snipers watch through scopes and can sometimes see the blood spill and the victim collapse as he dies. Together, these differences have made nonsnipers view snipers as homicidal, soulless robots flagrantly violating the rules of fair military play…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Snipers are an effective weapon in the commander's box of assets. Detractors like some in the Hollywood media as in many cases never served. And really have no idea about many military tactics and techniques. Plus of course, some just can't miss saying something to get them in the news again … 'm

+1 Legion
Also, most people who have not served tend to think of soldiers as loving war, when in reality they know one way to prevent war is to be well prepared for it. It's not intuitive, so a lot of people miss it.

Agree…!

Amicalement
Armand

While he's shooting at you he's all the negative things said about him but not when you think about it later. Much admiration and respect from me.

x42

one way to prevent war is to be well prepared for it

Absolutely, with a few caveats:

- OVER-preparing for war, given the likely enemies, or preparing for the wrong kind of likely war, or failing to prepare for the *likely* kind of war.

- Use it or lose it: Unfortunately, some politicians seem to think, "I have this bright, shiny army/navy/air force just sitting around gathering dust. I really wish there was some place I could put it to use."

- Pork: Military expenditure that's not really necessary except to save jobs and/or buy votes. (A problem that's definitely NOT limited to just military expenditure, needless to say.)

Modern day squads have at least one person as a designated marksman because snipers are in limited supply.
Designated Marksmen…act…as…snipers.
The 'MooreIgnorant' has/have no inkling or desire to know how/why the military functions.

Hollywood needs to make more war movies to re-educate themselves.

I sent a number of my troops from my Mech Co. at Benning to sniper training. But I don't think we had any sniper rifles … Those would be issued once deployed, IIRC. In the ROK our snipers used the M21, an accurized M14. And each sniper on the DMZ had two … one with a day scope, the other had a night scope.

There's a big difference between a Designated Marksman and a Sniper.

Both shoot a hell of a lot, and might even get the same shooting courses.

Snipers get a lot more training in how to not be seen and operating alone. Ever watched the start of Clear and Present Danger? Where the sniper is shooting at a steel plate while various people are trying to find him? That's a sniper, not a DM.