Ron Paul is under fire for a tweet sent from his twitter account regarding the untimely death of Navy SEAL sniper, Chris Kyle, who was allegedly murdered by another veteran who he was supposedly trying to help deal with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Paul\u2019s tweet read:<\/p>\n
\u201cChris Kyle\u2019s death seems to confirm that \u2018he who lives by the sword dies by the sword.\u2019 Treating PTSD at a firing range doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul is a veteran himself.\u00a0 After he became the subject of criticism, he extended his condolences to Kyle\u2019s family and assured his critics that it is not Kyle himself to whom he referred, but \u201cthe unconstitutional and unnecessary wars\u201d in which the late SEAL participated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUnconstitutional and unnecessary wars have endless unintended consequences,\u201d Paul said.\u00a0 \u201cA policy of non-violence, as Christ preached, would have prevented this and similar tragedies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some comments are in order here.<\/p>\n
First, anyone who knows anything at all about Paul knows that his most recent remarks are not an attempt at backpedaling on his part: Paul is nothing if not a stalwart opponent of what he routinely calls \u201cthe Warfare State.\u201d\u00a0 As far as he is concerned, there really is no end to the evil that America\u2019s incessant warring abroad promises to visit upon all <\/em>affected by it\u2014including and particularly those who engage in it.<\/p>\n Still, Chris Kyle<\/em> chose <\/em>to become a member of the United States military.\u00a0 He<\/em> chose <\/em>to become a Navy SEAL.\u00a0 And he<\/em> chose <\/em>to distinguish himself as the biggest killer in the annals of American military history.<\/p>\n These are not criticisms. They are facts.\u00a0 They are facts that neither a believer in individual liberty, like Paul, nor Kyle, the proud author of American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History<\/em>\u2014would think to deny.\u00a0 Paul comes dangerously close to playing the \u201cSociety made him do it\u201d card when he shifts the focus of his tweet from Kyle to the government.<\/p>\n Second, perhaps Kyle was not mistaken in viewing the 150 lives that he extinguished as a cost that had to be paid for the preservation and well being of his country.\u00a0 Yet perhaps he was so mistaken.\u00a0 That the American government<\/em> selects a group of people as \u201cthe enemy\u201d does not <\/em>mean that they pose a threat to the country.\u00a0 <\/em>And when this same government refuses to follow its own Constitution by issuing a formal declaration of war against those who ostensibly pose a vital threat to its interests, there is that much more reason for skepticism regarding its claims.<\/p>\n Third, even if Kyle was correct and he acted justly in killing 150 people, the fact remains that he still killed.\u00a0 That is, he did indeed live by the proverbial sword.\u00a0 Those in the police, the military, the secret service, bodyguards, security, and so forth, all live by the sword.\u00a0 There is nothing objectionable about this.\u00a0 Indeed, if the title of his book tells us anything, it tells us that Kyle knew this about himself better than anyone. If one who unabashedly styles himself to the world as \u201cthe most lethal sniper in U.S.military history\u201d isn\u2019t also one who \u201clives by the sword,\u201d then who is?<\/p>\n Yet, presumably, it is precisely because the Kyles of the world occupy the most violent and potentially violent of occupations that so many Americans, especially those on the right, elevate them as heroes. \u00a0It is because they stand the greatest chance of dying by the sword <\/em>that they are admired and praised.<\/p>\n Finally, that Paul quotes Jesus in connection with the violent death of \u201cthe most lethal sniper\u201d to which America has ever given rise strikes this Christian as eminently defensible\u2014intellectually, morally, and religiously.<\/p>\n As was just noted, we all know that police officers in high crime areas and military personnel in combat zones\u2014like Kyle, who served multiple tours of duty over a ten year period\u2014are more likely than college professors and maintenance men to die in the line of duty.\u00a0<\/p>\n Morally and religiously, Paul no more speaks out of turn in applying Jesus\u2019 teaching to America\u2019s most lethal sniper than Jesus spoke inappropriately when directing His teaching toward Peter, \u201cthe Rock\u201d on which He would build His church.\u00a0 The difference between Peter and Kyle, though, is that while the latter saw himself as killing for his country, Peter was prepared to kill for his Lord and Savior<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another crucial difference is that Peter never killed\u2014and yet Christ still admonished him.<\/p>\n But if Christians aren\u2019t outraged over the fact that Jesus issued this adage to one of His closest friends and disciples, then why is there outrage on their part now that Ron Paul has issued it (posthumously, of course) to the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history?<\/p>\n Ron Paul\u2019s tweet raises a number of questions concerning Christian charity, patriotism, war, and our civic obligations that far too many of us remain unwilling to face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ron Paul is under fire for a tweet sent from his twitter account regarding the untimely death of Navy SEAL sniper, Chris Kyle, who was allegedly murdered by another veteran who he was supposedly trying to help deal with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Paul\u2019s tweet read: \u201cChris Kyle\u2019s death seems to confirm that \u2018he who lives…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n