USMC: Sieg He- Err.. No, just Sniper Scouts! Honestly!

[Cheetah]

Picture from September 2010 apparently. But not to worry. The USMC said in a press brief that use of any Nazi-symbol is completely unacceptable.

There will however be no reactions towards the people involved in the picture however, as it was only a naive mistake. The Marines simply thought SS stood for Sniper Scouts!

So nothing to see here, move along. These are apparently not the Marines you're looking for.

But if I'm to accept that excuse, there's just one thing: I'm not gonna assume that everyone in the USMC are school dropouts, but you do learn about the second World War in school, right? And Raiders of the Lost Ark was available in the US, right? And, I assume, you do have movies about WW2, right?

Edit: I almost forgot, Norwgeian link.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

The similarities of the symbols is striking.

 

[Gigaz]

They obviously want to increase their popularity among the people of Iraq.

 

[Patroklos]

So do you actuallly think they are Nazis?

 

[Agent327]

No, just historically challenged.

 

[asbestos]

I didn't think they could sink lower than the peeing incident.

 

[Cheetah]

So do you actuallly think they are Nazis?

Nope!

I do, however, think that they think that the SS is cool!

And why not? The SS uniforms were designed by Hugo Boss (or his company, at least), the uniforms are black (black is an awesome, powerful and cool colour!), and even the German army helmets from WW2 look cool (shaped as they were, to look like Roman helmets).

And the German army - especially the SS, which was the elite of the army - during WW2 was awesome! They conquered almost all of Europe! And the SS were the elite parts of that awesome army!

And they've seen German soldiers from WW2, and SS soldiers especially, portrayed in movies and books. And those soldiers were wicked cool! Like Darth Vader even! (Who also dressed in black and had a Roman-shaped helmet.)

I think they think that the SS is, like, the coolest military-thing ever!

And I think they're extremely stupid for taking a picture like this, and connecting themselves with the SS and ignoring all the bad things which are associated with the SS.

It is true that not all parts of SS were evil, as such. Many divisions were primarily combat divisions. But there were enough parts of the SS stained in innocent blood that any soldier of today should be extremely careful about associating himself with it.

And I believe somebody in the USMC is taking me for a fool if they believe I buy the excuse about how SS was thought to mean Sniper Scouts!

 

[Tarquelne]

I assumed it was fake ("Could they really be that foolish?"), but here's a Marine Corp Times article.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/new...logizes-for-scout-sniper-nazi-ss-logo-021012/

The Sniper Scout units have been told not to use the SS symbol before. The article's ambiguous, but it looks like cautious about the lightning bolt "SS" symbol might have fallen out of training program.

I'm a WWII buff, so I have no idea how common knowledge of the symbol is among the general population.

I think this is worth noting:

MRFF’s action was prompted by 45-active duty Marines expressing concern about the logo’s use, the organization said in a letter to Amos, Panetta and other top Pentagon officials.

 

[wilycoyote]

Is the peeing incident THAT bad?

If I was in Afghanistan, with a certain group of people trying to kill me in any way that they could, trying to kill my friends in any way that they could, I wouldn't care one way or another what happens to their dead bodies. I doubt I would pee on them, but if I saw someone doing so I wouldn't care, even a little bit.

In a political/diplomatic sense, it is terrible though. It suggests to people in the civilized world that these soldiers are immature or worse, evil. But, they aren't in anything that can be called civilized (I don't mean Afghanistan, but instead a theater of war). To me, it's like criticizing a starving child for eating a rat (and I know, peeing on bodies isn't the same as eating).

EDIT: Of course, the situation wouldn't justify torture or whatever.

 

[The_J]

eh...you should probably read the linked news article .


Ontopic: This is so dumb that it's unbelievable.
Even if the average soldier might not know about the symbol (really?), there's no excuse that whoever is responsible for that unit (?) did not put that somewhere on the schedule to teach (?) the soldiers.

 

[bhsup]

Yes, it is stupid.
No, they are not nazi marines.
No, they should not be punished. Just be told not to do it again and then punished if they disobey.
No, this really has no bearing on our war effort. It is a minor issue and not worth international discussion.
Yes, this is the last thing I am saying about it.

 

[Antilogic]

Ontopic: This is so dumb that it's unbelievable.
Even if the average soldier might not know about the symbol (really?), there's no excuse that whoever is responsible for that unit (?) did not put that somewhere on the schedule to teach (?) the soldiers.

It's not the most popular symbol associated with fascism, though. I could understand the average person not recognizing it as the SS symbol. However, at least one person should have caught it before the flag got made, and the flag designer should know where he got that symbol from.

 

[Traitorfish]

It is true that not all parts of SS were evil, as such. Many divisions were primarily combat divisions. But there were enough parts of the SS stained in innocent blood that any soldier of today should be extremely careful about associating himself with it.

Actually, I'd say that the combat divisions were pretty vile themselves. It was a volunteer outfit of ideologically motivated race-crusaders- a lot of them weren't even German, they were just that enthusiastic about Nazism- which on an Evil Scale of 1-10 is at least around an 9.

/off-topic

 

[History_Buff]

Is the peeing incident THAT bad?

...

In a political/diplomatic sense, it is terrible though. It suggests to people in the civilized world that these soldiers are immature or worse, evil.

Answered your own question. Yes it's awful, because it pisses off the locals. Locals that you absolutely need to win over if a favorable outcome is to be expected. Sure the US servicemen are under a lot of pressure, but as a modern armed force, we have to expect more from them.

I mean, people in the U.S. were pissed when the bodies of US servicemen killed in Iraq were lost/dumped in landfills/whatever it was. And that's talking about bodies desecrated by their own people.

And not to sound culturally offensive, but Afghans tend to be way more concerned with the treatment of their corpses than the average Christian. Might just have to do with the traditionalist rural lifestyle, might be a religious thing.

 

[Cheetah]

Actually, I'd say that the combat divisions were pretty vile themselves. It was a volunteer outfit of ideologically motivated race-crusaders- a lot of them weren't even German, they were just that enthusiastic about Nazism- which on an Evil Scale of 1-10 is at least around an 9.

/off-topic

Eh. Perhaps. Perhaps not.

From what I know, most Norwegian Nazis were content with joining NS (the Norwegian Naziparty) and sending Jews to Germany. The Norwegians who volunteered were far more anti-Communists than they were pro-Nazis.

And SS-Wiking and SS-Nord were surely better than SS-Dirlewanger, though I'm sure you can find war crimes committed by all of the SS units (Though, technically, I'm sure we can say the same about the vast majority of combat units no matter which side or war we're talking about...)

Yes, it is stupid.
No, they are not nazi marines.
No, they should not be punished. Just be told not to do it again and then punished if they disobey.
No, this really has no bearing on our war effort. It is a minor issue and not worth international discussion.
Yes, this is the last thing I am saying about it.

For me it's mostly the fact that they were stupid enough to do something like this.

I mean... don't they have at least a little bit of history knowledge and common sense??

 

[Samez]

Ohh lord... how could this happen...
reminds me somehow of this:

 

[NetGear]

"historically challenged" seems pretty unlikely for this demographic. Myexperience with military is that there is always that one war buff guy. Ww2 subject probably being 101 for these types. I'm gonna go with trying to be badass theory. Any racial nazi intent seems far fetched.

Simply put they're morons. Have them clean the latrine for eternity or something. But no big deal.

 

[Rashiminos]

So do you actuallly think they are Nazis?

In some ways.

 

[jtb1127]

I didn't think they could sink lower than the peeing incident.

I'm fairly sure that pissing on a dead body is worse than this.

 

[Miles Teg]

Credit to the soldier that came up with the "Sniper Scout" line, saying that with a straight face must have been hard. I highly doubt that they're actual Nazis, and the best remedy here is probably a lecture about what is and is not appropriate behavior for a person in uniform. And then a slap on the wrist and another lecture on who the SS were for whoever bought the flag. This isn't really headline news though, and doesn't say much about the armed forces overall.

And yeah, as far as military discipline and image issues go, pissing on an enemy corpse is a much more serious offense.