Criticize the Iraq war if you must but judge the movie w/o the political commentary

Rating: 8/10 (23 May 2015)

The movie is about the cumulative effects of combat in the Iraq war. The main character is based on the life of Navy SEAL and sniper Chris Kyle. The movie the pivotal times in his life, how the terrorist attacks on 9/11 influenced his decision to join the military, his relationship with his wife and family.
What the movie captures is how he changed over the course of four 9-month tours to Iraq because of the effect war has on him.
As someone who also deployed 3 times I can tell you that this was what I believe Eastwood was focusing on and not any political agenda or propaganda as some critics have suggested.
I'll ask you this if you think otherwise. Was the 1978 film Deer Hunter about the Vietnam War's politics or the effect it had on it's main characters played by De Niro and Walken? In the 1953 movie From Here To Eternity was the fact that we dropped the A-Bomb a factor in judging that film? The thing that all those films, and most war movies include, are the effects of combat. They called it soldier's heart, shell shock, or PTSD. It's had over 80 names since the Civil War and it effects each soldier differently. It also effects Police, Firemen, survivors of trauma from accidents and disasters and terrorist attacks.
If you didn't serve it may be difficult for you to truly appreciate the character of Chris Kyle but judge him and Eastwood's direction of the film separately from the politics of the Iraq War.