I walked out of the movie American Sniper with a heavy heart. The senseless murder of Chris Kyle at the hands of a fellow veteran is a tragedy. But it is also appalling that the Obama administration chose to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a war that Kyle helped to win.

Obama’s disdain for our veterans who have given life and limb and heart and soul to protect their country and its freedoms has been apparent for years. His assault on the military would be horrible at any time, but in the midst of war, it is criminal. General Jerry Boykin observed,

I think that one of the things that people are not paying enough attention to is the destruction of our military… our military is being devastated at the same time that all of our enemies, all of our potential adversaries are ramping up…. Our military’s been at war for 13 years. Our military is broken. They’re tired. Suicide is at an all-time high. PTSD is rampant and families are falling apart at the seams….

The latest  Military Times survey indicates that

Obama’s popularity -- never high to begin with -- has crumbled, falling from 35 percent in 2009 to just 15 percent this year, while his disapproval ratings have increased to 55 percent from 40 percent over that time. 

While the survey reveals that military members take issue with Obama’s lack of leadership in the foreign policy arena including removing all troops from Iraq leading to the rise of ISIS, they also take issue with his “heavy-handed social engineering that erode deep-seated traditions and potentially undermine good order and discipline.”

Obama has also “purged” the military of commanders with whom he disagrees. Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely stated

[T]he White House fails to take action or investigate its own, but finds it easy to fire military commanders “who have given their lives for their country.” He’s intentionally weakening and gutting our military, Pentagon and reducing us as a superpower, and anyone in the ranks who disagrees or speaks out is being purged.”

Perhaps that explains why Obama receives “mostly tepid” response from the military while his predecessor received enthusiastic cheers.  Perhaps it is the “absence of passion, this absence of conviction of the importance of success” that disturbed former defense secretary Robert Gates as he stated

It’s one thing to tell the troops that you support them. It’s another to work at making them believe that you believe as president that their sacrifice is worth it. That the cause is just, that what they are doing is important for the country and that they must succeed.  President Bush did that with the troops when I was Secretary. I did not see President Obama do that.

Or perhaps it is this administration’s policies of releasing terrorists from Gitmo who return to battle. Or pressuring the Pentagon to allow Islamic beards and hijabs.  Or, in the face of colossal entitlement spending, reducing our army to pre-World War II levels, including sending pink slips to soldiers on active combat duty in war zones.

Watching Kyle’s struggle to adjust to civilian life was also disturbing in light of the VA scandal. The contrast between Obama’s lack of empathy and that of George W. Bush highlights the qualities of a true commander-in-chief. Obama jokes and golfs in the aftermath of terror attacks; Bush cried for each soldier’s passing. In retirement, Bush works with wounded warriors. Obama will spend his retirement as he does in office -- vacationing, golfing, and hobnobbing with the rich and famous.

We are almost unique in watching a Hollywood production about an ongoing war -- one with an enemy that is currently growing in strength and numbers. Most of the Vietnam War movies – The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and Born on the Fourth of July – were made after it ended.  With decades of perspective, the viewers of those movies saw disturbing pictures of war removed from the atrocities and dangers.

American Sniper is different. Chris Kyle is the star but the savages are the supporting cast. While watching American Sniper, the viewer is observing events that occurred recently and that may well take place tomorrow. There is no escaping the fact that the “evil f—king savages” as Kyle so aptly calls them are alive and well -- and coming for us.

They have already brought their evil to shores across the globe, murdering on every continent. And yet, Obama is opening our borders to an endless wave of illegal immigration aiding and abetting terrorist cells as they set up shop in the U.S.  According to General Boykin

We’ve caught a dozen of them coming across the border….ISIS is in America and more are coming because they’re coming into the South America and Central America and they’re making their way up across our border.  They’re coming across our border.  Their Korans, prayer rugs and terrorist training manuals in the — on the American side of the border.  We fight them there or we fight them here.

American Sniper leaves the viewer with feelings of respect and admiration for all of the Chris Kyles fighting on the frontlines. But it does not result in a false comfort that our soldiers have stopped the enemy in a far-off land. 

Whether watching images of terrorists beheading Westerners, systematically gunning down infidels and Jews, butchering and enslaving their own, or blowing themselves and innocents up the world over, we are living through war in real time. The terrorists are providing footage for future movies as their numbers increase while Obama ensures that the number of Chris Kyles will inevitably decrease.

It is ironic that director Clint Eastwood stood on the stage at the Republican National Convention in 2012 talking to an empty chair. While chastised in the mainstream for being a senile old man, Eastwood was spot on. In the wake of Obama’s absence at the march against terrorism in Paris last week, a picture of the world leaders posing with an empty chair exemplifies the problem.

If only the commander-in-chief had half the courage, character, bravery, and heart that Kyle had.  Unfortunately, there is a sense that Obama, the man who described the Muslim call to prayer “the sweetest sound I know,” would sooner shout “Allahu Akbar” than “Oorah.” And from someone who listened to “God damn America,” we know that Obama would never repeat Kyle’s sentiment that, “I’d die for this country. America is the greatest country in the world.”

As Kyle struggled to adjust to life outside of the military, he explained, “I will stand before my Creator and justify every shot.” The evil f--king savages ignorantly believe that 72 virgins will welcome them when they meet their maker. But when Obama meets his Creator, how will he ever justify what he has done to this country? Obama should be dishonorably discharged before he can harm our country and its heroes more than he already has.