A Green Beret's Open Letter to Gwyneth

After actress Gwyneth Paltrow made some controversial remarks recently, comparing reading hateful Internet comments to fighting in a war, many people were prepared to give her an earful. Cindy McCain was one of the first public figures to express her outrage over the actress' comments with celebs and non-celebs alike following suit. Now, however, a U.S. Army Green Beret has written an open letter to Gwyneth Paltrow, revealing his anger over her comments.

Sergeant First Class Bryan Sikes, who unlike Paltrow, has actually served for our country and has experienced the hardships of war, was appalled by the actress’s comparison. Sikes, who enlisted in 2005, according to an interview with Clash Daily, was awarded a Green Beret in April 2007 and did his first tour in Afghanistan soon after. When he returned to Afghanistan again in 2008, he suffered numerous injuries from traveling in a humvee that rolled over an IED.

As a guest columnist for Clash Daily, Sikes wrote in his open letter,

I can only imagine the difficulty of waking up in a 12,000 square foot Hollywood home and having your assistant retrieve your iPhone, only to see that the battery is low and someone on twitter (the social media concept that you and all your friends contribute to on an hourly basis to feed your ego and narcissistic ways), has written a mean word or 2 about you.

Starting in what is, quite obviously, a sarcastic tone to point out how ridiculously silly Paltrow’s comparison was, Sikes continues his letter with his own experiences at war.

I could see how you, and others like you in ‘the biz,’ could be so insecure and mentally weak that you could pair the difficult of your life on twitter to my brothers who have had their limbs ripped off and seen their friends shot, blown up, burned and disfigured, or wake up every morning in pain – while just starting the day is a challenge.

Finally, after many unsympathetic but undeniably true words, Sikes ends his letter with a powerful message that should leave Paltrow refusing to get on the Internet ever again.

"Understand me when I say this: war does not define me," Sikes said. "It is a chapter in my life that helped shape me. Being a husband and father is what defines me. Remember, sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never… be close to what war is."