Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Marine Corps says snipers posted with Nazi SS symbol in Afghanistan
Fox News ^ | February 10th, 2012 | Fox News

Posted on 02/10/2012 4:37:35 AM PST by KantianBurke

SAN DIEGO – The Marine Corps on Thursday once again did damage control after a photograph surfaced of a sniper team in Afghanistan posing in front of a flag with a logo resembling that of the notorious Nazi SS -- a special unit that murdered millions of Jews, gypsies and others. The Corps said in a statement that using the symbol was not acceptable, but the Marines in the photograph taken in September 2010 will not be disciplined because investigators determined it was a naive mistake. The Marines believed the SS symbol was meant to represent sniper scouts and never intended to be associated with a racist organization, said Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton, where the Marines were based.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, headquartered in Los Angeles, said he does not buy the explanation that posing with the flag was an innocent mistake and insisted the American public has a right to know what happened.

"If you look at any book on the Nazi period, this is the dreaded symbol of the SS, and to have a Marine Corps unit adopt it and put it beside the American flag when 200,000 Americans died to free the world of that dreaded symbol is just beyond the pale," he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; marines; ss
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 241-245 next last
To: TomGuy

Or the Gadsden flag.

Wow, that would be confusing as hell. “Terrorists” killing other terrorists? /s


101 posted on 02/10/2012 7:49:59 AM PST by Molon Labbie (End the War On Drugs, Restore the Constitution.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: andy58-in-nh

This issue hit the news in Austin this morning and some news organization had a Navy spokesman tell listeners what the ‘SS’ stood for on that flag.


102 posted on 02/10/2012 7:56:15 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 (Dear God, thanks for the rain, but please let it rain more in Texas. Amen.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 100 | View Replies]

To: Borax Queen
I'm going to take a middle position here.

The SS runes are obviously Nazi SS runes, and they were selected by the Scout Snipers precisely because they are shocking and intimidating. Pretending otherwise makes us look stupid.

On the other hand, I'm not particularly bothered by them. These Marines are not out there fighting in a desert s***hole for enlightenment and cultural edification. They are there to kick enemy ass so that we have a free country and a safer world to live in. I don't expect them to be shiny happy paragons of sensitivity, empathy and tactfulness. I expect them to be badasses who kick s***. And I'm willing to cut them a heck of a lot more slack than I'll cut for just about anybody else. The silly, limp milksops and pantywaists who are shouting for these Marine's heads on plates offend me more than any Nazi symbol.

103 posted on 02/10/2012 7:57:11 AM PST by jboot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 95 | View Replies]

To: Arrowhead1952; 2ndamendmentpa; cartan; KantianBurke
98 posted on Friday, February 10, 2012 9:42:44 AM by Arrowhead1952: “The ‘SS’ symbol stands for Scout Snipers.”

Yes, and the photo at Post #52 makes clear that the double-lightning-bolt “SS” symbol was used by the Marine Corps in the past, and maybe still is being used elsewhere today.

I think it's obvious these ten Marines need to be cut some slack. They didn't know.

The problem is **WHY** they didn't know.

After all, that symbol is already right on the Marine Corps list of inappropriate symbols, linked here: http://www.yuma.usmc.mil/services/eo/documents/tattoos.ppt

Again, it looks like the Marines handled this appropriately. I'm guessing somebody will quickly come up with a “cool looking” Scout Sniper symbol which everybody will like to replace the “SS” symbols now in use or which have been used in the past.

Maybe two S-shaped snakes coiled around a crescent moon, one crushing it and the other eating it, with the words “two centuries of taking the fight to the shores of Tripoli” underneath?

Nah, that would be too politically incorrect and would antagonize too many of our allies...

104 posted on 02/10/2012 7:58:01 AM PST by darrellmaurina
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 98 | View Replies]

To: andy58-in-nh
This media storm is even more stupid than the one based on a video purportedly showing Marines urinating on dead terrorists. The Marines in question were likely born in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and World War II and its symbols are not known among this generation. (To be fair, the nitwits wearing Che Guevara T-shirts are also ignorant of history.)
105 posted on 02/10/2012 7:59:13 AM PST by Wallace T.
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 99 | View Replies]

To: cartan

Chaim Horowitz aka Gene Simmons


106 posted on 02/10/2012 8:05:23 AM PST by junta ("Peace is a racket", testimony from crime boss Barrack Hussein Obama.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Wallace T.
We know (or ought to know) what the mainstream media's interest is in this story: it is to promote a false narrative - America is racist and bigoted, and our soldiers are heartless killers who are creating terrorists rather than merely fighting against them.

The real story, I think, is that too many young Americans are ignorant of the facts and symbols of their own nation's history, thanks to a corrupt educational system and a news media that promotes an ideological agenda through the use of selective facts and intentionally slanted language.

107 posted on 02/10/2012 8:10:05 AM PST by andy58-in-nh (America does not need to be organized: it needs to be liberated.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 105 | View Replies]

To: darrellmaurina; VoyagerXII

Look at the reply by VoyagerXII.


Just for fun, Google “45th infantry patch”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2844792/posts?page=34#34


108 posted on 02/10/2012 8:20:17 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 (Dear God, thanks for the rain, but please let it rain more in Texas. Amen.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 104 | View Replies]

To: Chickensoup

Thank you for talking to him, and for your tagline! Like my parents, who escaped from both Hitler and Stalin, say, Stalin erased the names of the millions he murdered and he got away with it (largely, other than for some of us who do still remember and know).

And, the Communists running everything today do the “wag the dog” with imaginary items like this Scout Sniper unit.


109 posted on 02/10/2012 8:34:18 AM PST by Borax Queen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]

To: petitfour

They study military history so everyone in any branch should know about the symbols. Just about anything can be looked up on the internet. No excuse.


110 posted on 02/10/2012 8:36:04 AM PST by USAF80
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: jboot
The silly, limp milksops and pantywaists who are shouting for these Marine's heads on plates offend me more than any Nazi symbol.

I agree with you.

I'm even more personally offended about this b.s. because my brother is a Marine (not in this unit or anything, but still). Let the PC police go around admonishing KISS and everyone else who has used a similar symbol.

111 posted on 02/10/2012 8:39:32 AM PST by Borax Queen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 103 | View Replies]

To: junta
Chaim Horowitz aka Gene Simmons
Do young people today even know who that is? :-)
112 posted on 02/10/2012 8:46:19 AM PST by cartan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 106 | View Replies]

To: sniper63
This is a Nazi ss flag, the one in the picture is not! Note the color scheme.......

Yeah right, the Marines was a really dark deep dense blue, not black. How could anybody possibly confuse them?

113 posted on 02/10/2012 8:49:31 AM PST by Oztrich Boy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: stevie_d_64
Corps
114 posted on 02/10/2012 8:51:51 AM PST by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: Drew68

You can indeed link to Gannett publications, you can’t post content/excerpts.


115 posted on 02/10/2012 8:54:35 AM PST by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | View Replies]

To: cartan
"Do young people today even know who that is? :-)"

Maybe not, but they've certainly seen these in the store ...

... and probably thought to themselves, "Gee, that double-S sure looks neat ..."

116 posted on 02/10/2012 8:56:27 AM PST by BlueLancer (KOMEN PINK: The color of the water in the basin after Pilate finished washing his hands)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 112 | View Replies]

To: KantianBurke

Much ado about nothing. I certainly hope none of you PC nannyists find out that HMLA-169 has two iron crosses painted on each one of their birds.


117 posted on 02/10/2012 8:59:57 AM PST by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Borax Queen
The PC police aren't really offended by the Nazi symbolism. The truth is that they loath the military, and this is a convenient way for them to give the service a black eye without tipping their commie lib anti-American hand.

I wish your brother all the best. There is no higher calling. Semper Fi!

118 posted on 02/10/2012 9:01:09 AM PST by jboot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 111 | View Replies]

To: BlueLancer
and probably thought to themselves, “Gee, that double-S sure looks neat…”
Yes, something like that seems to be the most likely explanation.
119 posted on 02/10/2012 9:06:29 AM PST by cartan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 116 | View Replies]

To: jboot

True, that’s a very good point.

And, thank you, jboot, I’ll tell him! Semper Fi!


120 posted on 02/10/2012 9:07:45 AM PST by Borax Queen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 118 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 241-245 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson