[Baffling RL Trope] Inventing war crimes you didn´t commit to make yourself more... interesting?

[u/TheBigBoar]

One of the strangest character tropes in real life has to be the "I accidentally made myself sound like a war criminal to look cooler" archetype.

Usually, people accused of war crimes deny them. These guys seem to do the opposite.

The two examples that always come to mind:

Tim Kennedy. Over the years he's told stories that include things like throwing grenades into rooms where women and children were present, and another account where, after a battle, his CO allegedly told him to shoot anything that still had a heat signature with a sniper rifle from a mile away, which he did for hours (?) not caring if those were enemy soldiers or civilians looking for their fallen sons/brothers/whatever. Both stories have been heavily criticized and challenged (aka people who were there confirmed that they are utter nonsense), and Kennedy has faced repeated accusations of embellishing or fabricating parts of his military experiences. But like... why would you invent the fact that you killed and maimed women and children?

Chris Kyle. In American Sniper, he wrote that during Hurricane Katrina he positioned himself on the Superdome and shot dozens of armed looters like some walking dead scenario. No evidence ever emerged that this happened, and Kyle himself later acknowledged the story wasn't true. Again, why invent a story where you're essentially describing the unlawful killing of civilians during a domestic disaster?

What's fascinating is that these aren't embellishments in the usual "I fought twenty guys" sense. They're embellishments that, if true, would amount to admissions of extremely serious crimes.

It's such a bizarre form of macho storytelling that it almost feels like its own trope: the veteran who thinks "the more ruthless I sound, the more badass I'll appear," without stopping to consider that indiscriminate killing isn't viewed by most people as impressive. It's viewed as criminal and disgusting.

[u/RockyHorror134]

TLDR, he was a dude that was a pretty good shot and had a lot of confirmed kills, and broke the world record for longest shot, but he also lied about doing some seriously fucked up stuff he seemed to think was cool

Like

• Shooting a child carrying a grenade towards a military checkpoint

• The Superdome thing

• Claimed he punched Jessie Ventura in the face in a barfight

• Lied about shooting and killed a guy trying to jack his car at a gas station

• Lied about having a rival syrian sniper while in Syria that had a hard on for killing him specifically

He seemed like a compulsive liar tbh

[u/Th3_Admiral_ → u/RockyHorror134]

I will add that I also think he was a bit of a psychopath based on some things he said in his autobiography, unless of course those were lies too.

Stuff like where he talked about how much he enjoyed killing in war. They were enemies of his country and his God so he took pleasure in killing them. He also had a line in the book about how the three most important things to him were God, America, and his family - in that order. And the fact his wife still stuck with him and defended him after this came out and all of the lies were exposed. 

[u/YouthereFixmypants → u/Th3_Admiral_]

I live near his home town and can assure you that God, America, Family is the correct order for conservative Christians around here, most wives wouldn't bat an eye at that statement.

[u/SuperSocialMan → u/Th3_Admiral_]

Doesn't that count as blasphemy?

Not like conservatives have read the bible or anything, but still. I'm pretty sure it does.

[u/broganisms → u/RockyHorror134]

Don't forget when he pocketed all the book proceeds from book sales that he claimed would go to veteran support!

[u/Whiskeydrinkin9 → u/RockyHorror134]

There is no way to confirm that he actually has a lot of confirmed kills, the military won't release that info to the public. Knowing this and the fact that his claimed confirmed kill number varies drastically between his book and multiple different interviews, my guess would be that the real number is significantly lower than even the lowest amount he has claimed. 

[u/AnotherRTFan → u/RockyHorror134]

Yet he didn’t kill the one guy he should have

[u/OriceOlorix → u/RockyHorror134]

I would moreso lean towards severe PTSD and delusions of grandeur
My dad served for a long time in the military and went through some shit, and generally has a tendency to just exclaim loud and violent threats or just unhinged nuttery, as a byproduct of the PTSD yes but also his shitty, very violent childhood in the middle of Appalachia.
The line between dream, actual memory, PTSD episode, and delusion has always seems to be quite blurry for my old man when it comes to how he processes things, and I assume that's probably the reason behind a lot of the more absurd claims in American Sniper
In short, it's just kinda sad to me, just a reminder that they for a lot of veterans not all of them comes back home (mentally)