St. Joan of Arc & the Truth about Snipers & Why Tyrants like Hitler Always Hate Them

In recent days I have been amazed and sickened by some of the vicious comments I have heard directed at Chris Kyle, the soldier portrayed in the new movie American Sniper, and I felt I could help people better understand the truth about snipers and why they are so feared and hated by the kind of people making the negative comments.  In St. Joan of Arc’s army soldiers that functioned as snipers were as important to her military success as they are today to the success of modern military operations.  One man in particular in St. Joan’s army known as Master John the Culveriner became legendary precisely because he was so deadly at long range with a weapon called the hand culverin which was the medieval forerunner to a long range rifle.  In the famous Journal of the Siege of Orleans he is recorded as being particularly hated by the English for picking off so many of them with his weapon.  There were also many men in St. Joan’s army that carried crossbows which was of course the weapon that William Tell became famous for using as a sniper. Considering that St. Joan of Arc has been hailed by military historians as the very flower of chivalry if St. Joan had felt that the function of a sniper was in any way illegal, unethical or contrary to honorable warfare then she would have put an end to the practice immediately since she had no tolerance for evil down to the point of even forbidding swearing among her men.  Obviously St. Joan considered snipers to be an honorable part of warfare that aided and protected her own men and ultimately helped to defeat the enemy and put an end to warfare as soon as possible which was always her greatest goal in war.

“Why did Schiller have to immortalize
that Swiss sniper [William Tell]!”- Adolf Hitler

If snipers were considered a proper part of warfare by someone as pure of heart and close to God as St. Joan of Arc then let us consider exactly who it is and why it is that certain people hate snipers so much and go to such lengths to denigrate them.  The most famous portrayal of a sniper in all of history is of course that of the Swiss sniper William Tell.  Of the many versions of the story that have been written the one by the Poet of Freedom Friedrich Schiller is particularly inspiring because it shows how one patriotic individual can effectively fight back against a tyrant and win.  This message is extremely disturbing to tyrants like Adolf Hitler who, despite his great desire to want to use the intellectual legacy of Schiller to legitimize his Nazi regime, had Schiller’s play about William Tell banned in 1938.  Today’s tyrants and their agents are no different than Hitler and will do anything and everything they can to try to keep people from learning the truth about snipers exactly because they are such a lethal threat to their maintaining control.  Ultimately in condemning brave soldiers like Chris Kyle the haters are really revealing their true colors and what they really stand for which is the suppression of freedom.  It is too bad that these kind of people can not learn the lesson from Hitler’s failed attempt to control the world because despite all their efforts they will never defeat freedom loving people precisely because there will always be heroic snipers like William Tell and Chris Kyle to prove dramatically to the world that one individual can effectively fight back and win.

As an addendum let me explain to all the loyal readers of this blog that this article is a prime example of why the Maid of Heaven Foundation was begun which I introduced to everyone earlier this month on St. Joan’s birthday.   In keeping with our mission to inspire people to Love God and Live Free like St. Joan of Arc this article is a lot more than just a history lesson.  I will of course continue to write articles specifically about Joan of Arc’s history but I feel that the greatest way that I can ever honor St. Joan and every soldier like her that has ever fought for freedom is to do everything I can to make sure that the world we live in is as free as possible.  RIP Chris Kyle!