Originally Posted by Rabs

Dont know how to feel about it, but my gut reaction was to find it disrespectful.

Off-center for so many reasons.

The metaphor between fighting Japan and fighting Global Warming just does not work.

I think you might find that the ill effects of not looking after the planet could well be much worse than the worst possible outcome of the war against Japan. However, that is not really the point.

Disrespect implies contempt, and I feel that in this case there was certainly no contempt implied.

This one act of raising the Flag is no different to a million other acts performed by valiant men who fought and died for our countries. In Australia this is at the forefront of attention at this very moment as tomorrow, Friday 25th is ANZAC Day (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) when the nation stops to pay homage to our war dead.

Yeah... 03 is right. For us it's just a distant story and a photo of a past we never knew. For them it a personal experience that is their own. It is in their own memories seen by their own eyes.
Looking back at this topic, I don't think many of us (including myself) actually have earned the right to argue that it was appropriate. We haven't been to war. We don't know just how personal war can get. We don't have the right to oppose the vets on this one because we haven't earned it.
You can argue against a vet against something that doesn't have to do with going to war I guess, but when it comes to war, that's when the rest of us who have never exchanged gunfire can shut up, sit down and listen.
If you've been to war and you argue against the vets here, you've earned that right.

Originally Posted by MontyB

I am going to agree with this there have been countless parodies of this event from the Simpsons to beach landings in Somalia where was the outcry during these events?

It was there just not widely reported. Spam used the photo and replaced the US Flag with a Spam banner. They pulled the ad after they were approached by the Iwo vets, 5th MarDiv Assn, 4th MarDiv Assn, 3rd Mardiv Assn, the Marine Corps Assn, and the Marine Corps League.

And there have been other instances.

I agree. I think we shouldn't be using images of the sacrifices that other men made so we could have our freedom to show some random cause that had nothing to do with the photo.

seeing as how thats the bloodiest battle in marine corps history i can see why they might be alittle pissed!