Well gents, you wanted a piece of the spotlight surrounding my dead hero friend’s success. You’ve got that now, and you’ve landed on my target deck.

Neither of you have visibility into what it’s like to volunteer for public service as a firefighter, law enforcement, government service, or to understand what it’s like to write a blank check to Uncle Sam that comes with volunteering for the US military.

I saw the Twin Towers fall, realized I was off to some strange land to defend the freedom we enjoy in America as a Navy SEAL, and I realized I wouldn’t be there for the birth of my son, born November 30th, 2001. Chris Kyle and I were stationed at SEAL Team 3 at the time, and he and others would soon follow. A lot of my friends would never return.

It’s a strange place to find yourself, when half of your friends are no longer here. I catch myself grabbing my phone to call my best friend Glen Doherty and other friends I’ve lost, and then I realize they’re gone. They are not – they were not – cowards. They are human beings, my friends. They are fathers, husbands, with mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. They gave their all for this country.

I’m writing this as someone who appreciates intelligent dialogue and debate regardless of your political or religious position. But Seth Rogen and Michael Moore aren’t about an intelligent dialogue, they’re about pushing their own celebrity and grabbing a piece of my hero friend’s spotlight.

Harsh, naive, and thoughtless comments, shouted down from their penthouse apartment in their own L.A. version of the Capitol city as portrayed in the movie the Hunger Games. All in the name of their own egocentric celebrity, and a weak attempt to draft off the success of a dead hero who is no longer here to defend himself or his family.

Congratulations, you’ve joined the ranks of Panthem and are participating in everything that is wrong in this country. We need thought leaders and people who can bring folks together, not divide them further.

A coward is someone who is afraid to engage in intelligent conversation, to see things from a different perspective, someone who throws out thoughtless slurs on social media. You are the true cowards, Michael Moore and Seth Rogen. You can backpedal all you want now that you’re feeling the heat and backlash of an America celebrating one of their heroes. Explain it away all you want, but the damage is done and your true characters have been revealed.

My friend may not be here to defend himself, but my veteran friends have shown up for muster, and a lot of American citizens, too. We’re here to speak out in the defense of a true American hero. My friend, Chris Kyle.

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Brandon Webb is a former Navy SEAL and CEO of Force12 Media. His latest book, Among Heroes, is available at Barnes & Noble.

(Featured Image Courtesy: Chris Kyle’s funeral)