totally different. How could professional soldiers know that it's the insignia of one of history's most fearsome fighting forces...and willing perpetrators of genocide?

And the Corps couldn't have known, so even if it was willful, we're just talking about a few bad apples and they'll be punished.

after it violates Middle East air spaces to bomb Iran.

...poorly educated in general. This was especially evident by the display of the SS lightening symbols and the mundane, when a reporter referred to the Tesla X "falcon doors" as inspired by the DeLorian in Back to the Future. Gull Wing doors were of course the unique feature of the 1952 Mercedes 300 SL Gull Wing model.
The behavior of the U.S. military is probably the worst since Korea, the Philippines, and the Indian Wars before that.
The U.S. is in total decline, led by a total failure of the educational system and thereby it's teaching of meaningful moral attitudes and behavior.
Even the military's initial response was ignorant and telling.
It's just going to get worse; we're replacing moral values with twisted, Christian, cult like ideals, which have nothing to do with spirituality. Add to that the hypocritical "family values" crap in a society that is directly responsible for the destruction of family.

That Waffen SS were similar to the US Rangers.

Originally the SS were similar to the US Secret Service, then they experienced mission creep to Special Forces, Death Camp Guards and Dignitary protection.

The SS were worse that the US' troops running Bagram, Gitmo, and the Special Forces, how exactly? Didn't Gas the Jews, but torture Muslims is ok?

All empires need such forces. Praetorian Guard, SAS, etc.

has been adapted by the Aryan Brotherhood.

Members of San Antonio's Swat Team are tattooed with the same.

I mentioned the connection to a Swat member friend a few years back. He had no clue.

I did inhale.

It would be like displaying the deaths head insignia:

Oh, wait.*

Is it stupid? Sure. Is it something that a bunch of young men raised on heavy metal imagery with little understanding of history could do without many of them being aware of what the symbol means? Sure. Just like many of the people who are up in arms about this will be ignorant of the historical role of the SS other than "SS = death camps".

Of course, I fondly remember the memories of a number of people who fought with Estonian regular and irregular forces, ended the war fighting under the SS flag, sought to resist Soviet occupation after the war and ended up having to flee for their lives to Canada (held by those who did the running to be one of only three nations that would take them). I'm sure all that's considered too complicated for folks to whom these things are only abstract symbols.

* For those who haven't had exposure to the insignia, that's the cap badge of the 17th/21st Lancers. I believe it continues to live on the British regimental system in some fashion (I haven't kept up with our amalgamation entirely, so the British forces one is completely beyond me).

"In combat one should be very suspicious of painless moral choices. When you are confronted with a seemingly painless moral choice, the odds are that you haven't looked deeply enough." ~ Karl Marlantes

Plenty of Eastern Europeans fought under the insignia and against the USSR in World War II. If i'm remembering my history right, a lot of those troops made some of the best, most willing concentration camp guards too.

Now you're right that a lot of the angry people won't know (or care) that the SS was much more than death camps, but ya know, that's kind of the SS's fault, isn't it? I mean, they did run the death camps and all.

And, no, the ignorance defense doesn't work because the double lightening bolt SS insignia is a favorite of neo-nazis. So it's not like you need to know the minutia of WWII history to have been exposed to it and its worst meaning. Also, these are professional soldiers, right? Wouldn't their training included some history of warfare? Given that their grandfathers/great grandfathers fought against the SS and the Wehrmacht is kind of big in military history i would think that they'd be exposed to some of this. You're also arguing that they're stupid as a defense. I'm sorry, but i'd prefer that the guys representing me abroad with guns aren't stupid.

But thanks, i knew someone would write my first comment over and be serious about it.

...the platoon of Rock Warriors that has been flaunting such imagery in their logo for years:

And you never questioned what the KiSS Army is all about, did you?

these guys get paid to kill people.

I had a cell-mate for a time, name of Joe Ficarra. He was a hit-man for the mafia.

Short, dark, old, inconspicuous. Listened to opera music. Well read.

I asked him once about the people he killed, trying somehow to square the fact this guy killed people with the fact that he seemed a decent type.

Why do you kill these folks?

Because they pay me $20,000.

What did they do?

I don't know.

Would you kill me for $20,000?

Yes.

Snipers ask no questions. They say, yes sir, and shoot who they're told to shoot.

I did inhale.

ignorance my eye! there should be someone/Captain, General/ above them that "knew". Such a farce/cop out. Nazi regala can't be some obscure and distant history unknown to those in the American Military. maybe the average Murcan wouldn't know about the Nazis and the SS, after all dumbing down has the been the goal of the Elites since St. Ronnie. the Military had to know. or else the Military is in worse trouble than just being the stormtroopers/snipers for the Elites and their OIL empire.

The parallels are so glaring, so obvious.

these are focused intelligent highly esteemed members of the "American" Military Way. Like they have no desire to compare themselves to previous hit squads/elite units from Military history. After all the Nazi movies? yeah right!

this is all about who has the biggest dick, and these men would be sure to compare themselves to the "best" in history at what they do. War really does make strange bedfellows.

After all we are an Empire, first and foremost.

Boy , what this says..... The Jews must really love knowing they have such idiots working for them in the Middle East. These Military Americans must be really easy to fool if they don't know the "symbols" they use in their own "tribe."

Why look, on the site linked below, you can buy that exact flag. Now i don't know where they bought the flag, and i'm not suggesting that that they ordered it from this site. But if they did, or bought it from a similar retailer, my guess is that the ignorance defense falls a little flat.

http://www.totls.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16%3Aclose-out-corner&catid=1%3Ahome&Itemid=30

Scroll about 3/4 of the way down the page, after all the Nazi standards with extra wax molds, Tottenkopf cap insignias and what not. You'll find that very flag in the last row of Nazi battle flags (to be fair, there are two Japanese flags, so maybe the Marines thought the SS was Japanese or something)

I think these guys are fully aware of what the runes mean, I just think they are trying to associate with the Waffen SS side of the SS. Most people see the runes and automatically think death camp guards having no knowledge of the combat side of the organization.

Incredibly stupid thing to do.

I just finished reading the book 'Trigger Men' by Hans Halberstadt. It's about the American sniper both army and Marine, the training and their employment in the past 40 years. Not the best written book, but full of information on that skill/trade.
http://www.amazon.ca/Trigger-Men-Spider-Man-Magnificent-Bastards/dp/0312354568

Exclusive: Marines' Nazi-Flag Whistleblower Comes Forward
An Iraq vet, now a Holocaust expert, explains why he exposed Marines' use of an SS flag.
—By Adam Weinstein | Sat Feb. 11, 2012 3:29 PM PST
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When Marine investigators learned last November that a scout sniper platoon in Afghanistan was using a Nazi SS flag as its standard, it wasn't a member of the unit who told them. It was Iraq war veteran Waitman Beorn, a visiting history professor at Loyola University New Orleans, also a Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowship recipient who teaches at the National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Dr. Beorn's research on Nazis and genocide is informed by his military background: He is a West Point graduate and former officer who served as a scout platoon leader in Iraq from 2003-04. Through his work he seeks to teach "ethical decision-making in a military context using the Holocaust as a vehicle."

Shortly after I first wrote about the flag controversy last week, Beorn got in touch to explain how and why he chose to report the incident to the Marine Corps' inspector general. (Though Beorn contacted military authorities, he didn't play a part in the incident's recent unearthing by the media.) For one, he had learned through military contacts that the use of the SS flag was not an isolated incident. He hoped that exposing it could lead to an important "teachable moment" that might help alleviate what he considers to be a serious issue. In an email interview, he shared with Mother Jones details of how the Marine Corps responded to him and how the Corps has since addressed this moral education issue with the troops. He said he was disappointed with the emerging media narrative that the military had responded poorly. "I was surprised by the speed with which they acted and the seriousness with which they appeared to take it," he wrote.

But he also emphasized: "I think our public needs to realize that this is not a case of the 'liberal media' going after our brave men and women in uniform. Symbols are important. They send messages. These messages are important." He explained his special interest in the SS incident with regard to military training, and what he thought would be the appropriate punishment for the service members in question—especially during wartime. In a follow-up email he wrote: "My focus is on the importance of positive unit cultures, and that the use of this image highlights a problem. For example, I was just informed that a Marine posted on a blog that he had had the tattoo for 17 years, which seems to highlight this point for me."

The following email exchange has been lightly edited for clarity.
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http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/exclusive-marines-nazi-flag-whistleblower-talks
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