My title is Jesus’ words to Peter in Matthew 26:52, but they are also the 2013 tweet of then Congressman Ron Paul at the murder of Chris Kyle, the most efficient sniper the service has ever seen. I was incensed at the time at the misuse of Jesus’ words, and was reminded of this again when I watched the 2014 move about Kyle titled “American Sniper”.
First note, Kyle was in service of our country. He didn’t live by the sword any more than any other combat soldier does. These all live (and some die) defending their country or our allies. This is in accordance with the famed words of General Patton in WW II, “George Patton’s last words to us before we left Africa came home with meaning: ‘No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.’”[i]
Kyle died by the hand of a cowardly veteran whose mom had asked him to help out her struggling son. He was shot by the coward at the shooting range they went to. It is clear from the movie that Kyle was looking for a way out, to be done with his service. He had, if I recall correctly served 4 tours, but still balked at leaving behind his fellow soldiers. This made it hard for him to adjust to civilian life. He did in the end but not long after was gunned down.
Contrast this with one of the two Army Rangers who were killed with Ashely White when one of them triggered an IED as recounted in the book I’ve referred to before Ashley’s War. One of those Rangers was on his 12th combat tour. Or read about Bastrop native Billy Waugh whose career spanned every conflict, known and unknown, from Korea to post 911. He was a CIA operative and at age 71 begged to be involved in the post 911 wars. Read about him in Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins. Another book, Legacy of Ashes, 10 years prior, is also a history of the CIA. Both left me agog at some of the things our country has planned, done, and defends as necessary.
Waugh and the unnamed Ranger weren’t mercenaries, who definitely do live by the sword, but there seems to be a battle lust if not a bloodlust about them which might make Matthew 26:52 apply to them. M. Scott Peck wrote in his 1983 book People of the Lie that “A draft – involuntary service – is the only thing that can keep our military sane. …A draft is a painful thing. …The point is that if we must have a military at all, it should hurt. …If we must kill, let us not select and train hired killers to do the dirty job for us and then forget that there’s any blood involved. If we must kill, then let us honestly suffer the agony involved in ourselves” (232). It is arguable that in the post-911 wars we as a country have not so suffered.
Kyle definitely suffered this agony. I don’t know about the other two soldiers mentioned above. And I do have a “weakness” for snipers. My cousin was a Marine Corps sniper in Vietnam, and I had a member who was the first Army soldier to graduate from Marine Corps Sniper School. I saw him shoot a pig running through the swamps in Louisiana 75 to 100 yards out in front of us. (My shot was somewhat behind…say 50 or so yards.)
Sniping has been used as tool of war since the Revolutionary War – read about some of the incredible shots made by smooth bore muskets at that time. It’s not cowardly, unsportsmanlike, or against the Geneva Conventions. It is not living by the sword but using a sword to keep others or yourself alive. There’s a difference. [ii]
[i] Bold original from https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/04/24/war/
[ii] Finally an unrelated but notable observation. Kyle is depicted in a sniper position and actually in a firefight calling home on a satphone. Waugh, or it might have been another Green Beret, said that the one thing that will get you killed in combat is thinking about your home instead of the war. Thanks be to God, I’ve never been in combat, but I would not have wanted to be in touch by phone with home if I was.
