The Anti-War Left Hates “Lone Survivor.” Here’s Why They’re Wrong.

Operation Redwings, a special operations mission in the highlands of Afghanistan, went tragically wrong. The new movie “Lone Survivor” tells the story in riveting fashion and, as a result, now perches atop the nation’s box office.

That offends a lot of angry birds on the left. LA Weekly, for example, sneers that the film is all “muscles and machismo,” charging it is a senseless glorification of war.

Such catcalls reveal more about the reviewer than the movie. They betray unbridled political correctness and an unshakable belief that war is an unspeakable act of evil invented by neocons. Such a world view inevitably leaves movie critics distanced from the real world.

The truth is that, regardless of what anyone thinks about the virtue of the war in Afghanistan, there was virtue in fighting that war—just as there is in fighting most any war, on all sides.

Conflict always produces examples of courage under fire, of soldiers who fight—to the death if need be—for the noble purpose of serving their country. “Lone Survivor” is an unsparing depiction of how the bravest of the brave make war.

“Lone Survivor” couldn’t do that. It is a true story, and there is a survivor. It had to be a movie about particular people at a particular time and place.

Taken together, the response to these three films (Saving Private Ryan, Hurt Locker & Lone Survivor) shows that the critics who are unhappy with “Lone Survivor” are saying more about their politics than they are about the movie.

They want Iraq and Afghanistan to be remembered as unwinnable worthless wars. That requires disparaging any portrayal of American warriors performing virtuous deeds.

But the deeds portrayed in “Lone Survivor” are true. And no amount of sneering by effete reviewers can change that fact.

Peter Berg’s film may not win over progressive critics or wrest an Oscar from Hollywood’s glitterati, but it is as good a war movie as has ever been made. More importantly, it’s an honorable depiction of how honorable men make war.

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