Politics

Retired Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell: ‘I don’t even understand’ term ‘pro-war’

Jamie Weinstein Senior Writer
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Retired Navy SEAL Marcus Lutrell responded Tuesday night to criticism that the movie based on his non-fiction book “Lone Survivor” is pro-war.

During “The Kelly File,” host Megyn Kelly pointed to an Atlantic magazine article that claimed the movie glorifies war and asked Lutrell whether such criticism had merit:

Kelly: Obviously some push back. Some on the left — we talked about an Atlantic magazine article that talked about how they view this as propaganda. They didn’t like the way the Taliban were portrayed in the film. And we heard a little bit of that chorus going on in the national media. Your thoughts on it?
Luttrell: I don’t really have any thoughts on it at all to tell you the truth. We were talking — someone told me something about pro-war and I sat and thought about it for a while and I don’t even know if that’s — I mean, is that a real term? Because there’s nothing glorious about war. I mean, there’s not. There’s nothing glorious about holding your friends in your arms and watching them die. There’s nothing glorious about having to leave your home for six to eight months while your family is back here and you’re away. Bottom line is there’s bad people everywhere. And every now and again, we’re going to have to step to them to make sure that we preserve our way of life. And it’s people like my teammates and I that have to do that — the men and women in the military. But there is nothing glorious about it. There’s nothing pro-war — I mean, nobody wants war. It’s the most horrible thing in the world. I think if anything about that the movie or about the story it’s you go and you watch it and it’s about the brotherhood. It’s about the guys who are willing to die for each other no matter what. It’s about the Afghani village that brought me in and that there’s good people everywhere. It tells a lot of stories I think, but I don’t see pro-[war] — I don’t even understand that term actually.”