Time Cover Riles Iwo Jima Veterans

April 19, 2008
Stars and Stripes

Here come the U.S. Marines. And they're not happy.
Time magazine, on its April 21 cover in most parts of the world, takes the famous Iwo Jima photograph of Marines raising the American flag, and replaces the flag with a tree to discuss battling climate change.
Some veteran Marines are up in arms.
Donald Mates, an Iwo Jima veteran, told the Business & Media Institute on Thursday that using that photograph to make a point about global warming is wrong.
"It's an absolute disgrace," Mates is quoted on the BMI Web site as saying. "Whoever did it is going to hell. That's a mortal sin. God forbid he runs into a Marine that was an Iwo Jima survivor."
Mates also said making the comparison of World War II to global warming was baseless and disrespectful.
"The second world war we knew was there," Mates told the BMI reporter. "Some say there is global warming, some say there isn't. And to stick a tree in place of a flag on the Iwo Jima picture is just sacrilegious."
Mates served in the 3rd Marine Division and fought in the battle of Iwo Jima, landing on Feb. 24, 1945, according to the report.
The mission of BMI, according to its site, is to audit the media's coverage of the free enterprise system.
Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel appeared on MSNBC on Thursday and said the United States needed to make a major effort to fight climate change, and that the cover's purpose was to liken global warming to World War II.
Lt. John Keith Wells, the leader of the platoon that raised the flags on Mount Suribachi and co-author of "Give Me Fifty Marines Not Afraid to Die: Iwo Jima" wasn't impressed.
"That global warming is the biggest joke I've ever known," Wells told the Business & Media Institute. "We'll stick a dadgum tree up somebody's rear if they want that and think that's going to cure something."

http://www.military.com/news/article...=1186032310810

It's a picture, okay? And we talk about the Muslims getting riled up over a cartoon...

meh, still it's their picture.

It's the Muslim's prophet too...

this is USA.

There's a difference - we're not threatening violence to Time Magazine. The sacrifices of any member of the military should never be used to illustrate a political point, regardless of the high-visibility nature of the event.

Originally Posted by c/Commander

There's a difference - we're not threatening violence to Time Magazine. The sacrifices of any member of the military should never be used to illustrate a political point, regardless of the high-visibility nature of the event.

true......

Personally i think it is less than tactful, and done by people who have real understanding of the sacrifice made by the American Marines to plant their countries flag there. It could also be done to get some cheap publicity knowing that the Marines might create a fuss and then they would get coverage worth millions of dollars of publicity for nothing all over the place.

But now it raises a question: Would George Washington have been offended by this?


or would he have laughed and remembered that it's a nonreal picutre?

The Other Guy.........Lets ask the question to the men that fought there. Now what do the soldiers that fought with George Washington think. We still have men that fought at Iwo Jima around and who lost a lot friends there, may be you would like to ask them what they think