American Sniper' Co-Author Responds to Michael Moore: 'Please Have Some Facts Behind You

Fallen Navy SEAL Chris Kyle has been criticized over the past week as the film based on his memoir, "American Sniper," breaks January box office records.

Michael Moore called snipers "cowards," and Seth Rogen said the movie reminded him of the Nazi propaganda film that aired in the third act of "Inglorious Basterds." Both claimed, however, that they were not insulting Chris Kyle.

Jim DeFelice, who co-wrote "American Sniper" with Chris Kyle, told Glenn Beck on Tuesday that there has been "a lot of criticism" of Kyle and the book since the book was first published. He just wishes people would read the book or see the movie before criticizing it.

"Most of the people who have problems with either the book or the movie, a lot of them haven't read the book," DeFelice said. "I can tell three words out of their mouth. You know, if you read the book and you've seen the movie or whatever, and you want to discuss it intellectually and intelligently, hey, listen, that's cool. That's fine. But please have some facts behind you, or I'm not going to listen to you."

Image credit: Associated Press

DeFelice specifically addressed Moore's claim that snipers are "cowards," saying many don't know what snipers do or why they do it.

"World War II, unfortunately, when we were trying to liberate France, Italy, Germany, a lot of countries, to get the enemy, we would blow up a building," he said. "Whole villages were wiped out, and towns and parts of cities. We don't want to do that. That's bad. We're killing innocent civilians. We're causing collateral damage. Even if we're not killing innocent people, we're destroying their buildings."

"The whole idea of snipers, the thing they did in the Iraq war, is they were highly trained," DeFelice continued. "[They were] given precision weapons and equipment and very strict rules of engagement so that the people they were killing were only terrorists and insurgents who were trying to kill other Iraqis and trying to kill Americans."

DeFelice said it is ironic that people criticize American snipers as cowards or villains, when the purpose of their job is to help avert as much collateral damage as possible. He also added that Kyle's job was to protect Iraqis as well as Americans, and "the Iraqis would never have been able to form their government" without snipers like Chris Kyle.

"But you know, I guess you can say whatever you want if you don't have the facts," he added.

Complimentary Clip from TheBlaze TV

[mlbvideo content_id=37151747]

[mlbvideo content_id=37151805]

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!