I completely agree.

Michael Sosa:

Please don't throw around that the Republicans are Nazi's-

It shows you as a Civilian, know nothing about what happened during the Holocaust in Europe---

The comments also show you may not have been in the Military Service for 30 years, either.

What an Insult to the US Military, to the Democrat and Republican Parties...

They really didn't know what the SS stood for. Either they are lying or our education system is worst them I thought.

it means scout sniper to them,get off thier backs,your kids probably a fat slob sitting in front of his play station.

Mike, well stated. One of the problems with "a" number of US citizens is that they do not know their history and these blunders become common.

I wonder what Kiss has to say for themselves

Oh, that's a beauty Patrick.

Oh Damn those Marines, now they've gone an spoiled everthing for "Homeland Security"....

This pic was not taken in a Nazi controled land. The symbols go back to ancient norse runes, you will find "nazi" symbols among the native american, budists and norse. I am guessing that the flash is 1/2 nazi due to the symbol on his chest. Due to nazis being assosciated with showers should no servicemen take showers? The jewish bolsheviks killed over 35 million Russian christains in the holodomor in the 1930s, before WWII, but a pic with soldiers and russian stuff wouldn't cause outrage.

Sosa,

Look brother; kudos to you for your service. I am a former Marine and I have many scout sniper friends. Your statement is just wrong. Please go talk to a Marine Scout Sniper before jumping to conclusions.

sometimes, the thinking cap must be worn, instead of a helmet that blocks other things, just guessing.......

Dear Michael Sosa, my husband is a Marine from the Vietnam era. He says even then that symbol stood for "Scout Snipers" and he participated in exercises with them. You have no knowledge of the military and since you are such a wuse I suggest you move somewhere where there is no one to protect you and yours and don't come back!

Good post Michael and thank you for your service. I have to say though the fact that these men need education is a bit disturbing. There are many of us non civilians who are educated enough to know right from wrong and I expect our military service men and women to. As you said many men died to fight the Nazi's which was in my humble civilian opinion the last time it was our freedom that was being fought for and not for some defense contractors budget. I agree whole heartily with your assessment of the two kinds of soldiers. I have often said to people and with vicious opposition I might add that that there are those who want to serve the nation and then there are those who just want to have target practice on little brown people and I for one am disgusted by the latter. I don't think you can teach an old dog a new trick. I am for education but I am of the opinion that punishment would be more affective in this case. Again thanks for your SERVICE to this great country. Soldiers like yourself are why I love it.

OMG....we are at war!!! These Marines have been flying this flag for years...and the Nazi flag was black not blue....Just a reason for someone to get there name in the News......God Bless are troops. Keep up the good work!!!

is that a freedom?? cool then us army=nazi army pure criminals they slaughtered many families , kids ,old people in iraq any way , they don't need a flag to show it .

Thank god none of the marines in the picture had goofy little mustaches. Think of the outcry then.

Another day were people wake up and look for any reason they can to try and be offended! Relax, let it go, you will probably be happier and live longer if you do. These men are NOT nazis, they are not committing war crimes and they are the front line to our freedoms. Why don't we show them a little respect instead of trying to break them down at every turn.

Thank you to all military men and women who have served this country!!!

Only an idiot would not know what this symbol is. It has not been flown for years. That is a lie.

Boy, are You a dumb ass. You obviously never served with SO groups. You were probably a damn cook or paper pusher.

I served 30.....all on active duty.....with nine proud years in Special Ops. Until some of the posters can include a pic of themselves in a hostile combat zone.....you have very little credibility with me. Don't try "Monday Morning Quarterbacking" if you weren't in Sunday's game.

dear mike why do liberals like urself always want tto pretend to have served to justify ur stupidity intelligent people see thru ur act and feel sorry for u

Michael. You obviously have never stepped foot on a battlefield in your "30 years of military service" If you could have ever peeled yourself away from that desk that you sat behind while on 24 years of reserve status you might have actually seen what the military was really like. These Marines don't like the SS any more than you like republicans. Which you show your immaturity AND ignorance with those comments about Republicans being the modern day Nazi party. It appears your hatred for a group of people that does not agree with you and your views have skewed your entire perception of a great military branch, who BTW have given all you hate mongers the right to speak your minds. So before you speak out of line, maybe you should clean the windows to your house and take a peek inside, take a long look at your own house and possibly do a little spring cleaning yourself. SEMPER-FI!!!

Kevin- your right on. What is funny is all this idiots bitch about history and they dont even remember the colors.

Same goes for the swastika. It had and still has a meaning long before Hilter ever used it. Some Asian cultures still mark it on the heads and its been in sculptures dating back hundreds of years.

Black Knight- Look at your comment and see who the idiot is. Its your "AN" idiot

The nazis stole every symbol they had from others including the swastika. There wasn't one original symbol that they created. Even the word Aryan the only Aryan people were the Persians now known as Iranians whom they wouldn't have accepted in their group. I don't feel there is anything wrong with taking back our symbols from those nutcases.

HOW the heck are they too read into what small mind that would think it ment nazi I mean come on nazi and ss ...maybe we should just ban the letter "s" altogether.

@ Sosa

My Camaro Super Sport has an SS on it too! Oh God! Conspiracy theory!

Hey, I got news for you Liberals...your as racist as anyone.

Your and idiot

LOL!!!!! Funniest post ever. I am going to steal this one and use it all the time.

Black Knight- Look at your comment and see who the idiot is. Its your "AN" idiot

Actually, Kste it's:

You're...an...idiot. Just sayin...

Scott: Thanks for telling it like it is! I'm behind you 100% and these fools need to get off the backs of our military. You don't like it here, LEAVE!!! And again it just goes to show you how the Liberal media reports lies. The AP is just garbage reporting.

Sosa, you can judge them as being war-mongers just from a photo? You're an amazing individual. Go to hell.

Lots of folks grasping at straws on this thread. Some of us had relatives who died in world war 2 and don't think its okay to fly the Nazi flag or the ss flag no matter what the circumstances. These are Nazi flags not alphabet soup on sesame street. If the sniper scouts want an SS flag that is fine but don't fly the Nazi's flag and try to justify it by siting kiss and camaro. The ploy of the desperate fart-knuckle.

@Michael Sosa; I think you hit the nail on the head when you said if they knew what the SS did... A majority of graduating High School seniors can't even name the countries that were our adversaries in the Second World War, they don't know was D-Day was or when, they have only the vaguest sense of the meaning of "Holocaust". How can you so blithely attach blame to them when our Federally mandated secondary education system obviously failed them so miserably.

The farther we get from the early 40's, and the fewer WWII era survivors there are, the less people will know - or care - about the terrible events that were perpertrated by the Third Reich.

If we presume that the Marines knew not only the history of the genocide committed by the SS, Waffen SS, Einsatzgruppen, and thousands of ordinary German citizens, and in that knowledge used the double rune symbol - in it's connotation as a symbol of ruthlessness -, that indeed would be a travesty and perhaps punishable under the UCMJ. If we make no such presumption, and only assume that they used it as a decades old symbol of the US Marine Corps Scout Sniper Regiment, these men are guilty of nothing.

The American public is not only far too distanced from the real costs of war, but have unrealistic expectations of the young men we send overseas - not even addressing if THAT is a valid decision - to fight and die. We wallow in our political correctness and our belief that everyone is so special. There are costs to war, there are casualties, and yes, people die (on June 6, 1944, 20,000 civilians DIED as a direct result of the Normandy invasion... One day, 20,000 innocent civilians. We had no problem accepting that 70 years ago, not so today) and mistakes are made. We need to stop worrying about these minor, relatively meaningless mistakes and start worrying about how we can change our society so that our young men will never again go to a foreign country and risk their lives for an ideal that our Constitution does not sanction. We need to get our house in order, NOT Afganistan's. Bring our troops home, and keep them home.

My Camaro Super Sport has an SS

SS Camaro, I never thought of that. I wish you never mentioned that. Now when I see one I'm going to look all nervous and suspicious. Half the time I'm not carrying any papers either.

.... ..... hmmmmmm...

I have an opinion!!!

They are boys. Boys trying to make sense of a world, they seen a symbol that was similar to something they can associate with "sniper scouts", and well, what's not cool about lightning bolt letters.... I'll agree that SOMEONE should have made the connection between the symbols they wanted to use, and the historical symbols use, but... hey not everyone has access to instant knowledge...

And EVEN IF THEY KNEW... they're not doing anything any different than what Sr command and leadership have done, U.S. tactics on a open Field of battle emulate ALOT of what Nazi Germany inspired. Blitzkrieg, the shape of the helmets.. the support of armor with infantry AND air support.. all adopted from the Game plan of the Reich's Generals...

Granted, the symbol is little more than a fierce reminder that the world can be an ugly place, but in the same context the schwastica is/was a symbol of tranquility and peace or something goofy like that before Hitler sunk his paws into it.

Now i'm not condoning the ninkapoop that knew it was a bad idea, but just becuase you were caught in a photo with the Devil himself doesn't mean you are evil... does it?

I'm wondering... is it the font that the "SS" is in, or that fact that it says "SS"? I'm almost positive if it was a different font, and not the lightning bolt, no one would have even noticed.

I seriously doubt you were in the military. If you were, you would know the duty of these Marines. Why would you be in the military if you think half the nation is nazi? Nice try but fail

I totally agree with Scott 4290151. In addition to that, I concur that our Educational System is totally lacking in teaching world history. It is my understanding that the latest move in Texas is for High School teachers to skip lightly over the events of World War II. The holocast and other atrocities that were committed by both the German and Japanese regimes may be mentioned but are not to be "taught". Of course America must always be reminded of the suffering the Japanese people endured because of our use of the Atomic Bomb.

Those who forget the lessons of the past are doomed to endure repetition in the future.

These marines were SCOUT SNIPERS. I don't think they recognized the symbols being old Nazi SS, they just saw it as a symbol for them. My son was a sniper and said it was unlikey those guys knew what it really meant.

One thing. The nazis awarded the Iron Cross to their soldiers for bravery. So in the same idea we should be up in arms about any organization that has or uses a cross as a symbol. Does that make sense to anyone????

I guess our education system has been really bad for many years.

the jew rock group kiss uses that symbol for it's ss...black.knight-48 looks like you were censored for an innocent comment...tyler must be overly sensitive...some news site though censoring nothing

For all you Dumb a$$es out there...

it is a Rune Bolt you dumbsh!ts.. Symbol for Hitlers death squads because he thought he was a God, the second coming of Christ... wow, most of you are just plain ignorant... I don't want it associated with America or our American soldiers.

God Bless America, we are NOT Nazi's and should never be associated with them.

Technically, the flag only superficially resembles the Schutzstaffel insignia's stylized double Sig runes, which were themselves based on runes that were dreamed up by Austrian mystical occultist Guido List. That's right, the root cause of this kerfuffle is the fertile imagination of some Österreichisch cuckoo.

In other words: Much ado about nothing.

SCOTT! Now tell ushHow you really Feel ! In my day when I wore my Tiger Stripe

BDU"S and pulled leeches from my balls, We used to call Guys like Mike

REMF's !( Rear Echelon M-----r F----rs ) They all had spit shined boots and

chrome 45's (Never Fired )! I remember one guy that really stood out of the

Crowd, His name was ALBERT GORE . This REMF even had a Body Guard

provided by his Dad, Senator Gore! Sign me MAC-V-SOG

Its your "AN" idiot

The others got to him before I could. Classic, no doubt~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IGHwoman - As recently as last year, at a 9-11 remembrance gathering, I could not believe the number of people who asked, "What are all these banners for?" and had puzzled looks on their faces when we said "It's the anniversary of 9-11." How soon we forget!

-Also, while in the Army, I was talking to one of my men in his room and one of his roomates had gotten in trouble for displaying a "Rebel Flag" in their room (a black sergeant considered it racist). I said that I could understand that. Then his other roomate laughed and told how the same sergeant looked at the Kaiser Flag (WW1 Germany) that he was displaying and said, "That's a cool flag." The roomate said, "Apparently he didn't know what it stood for."

In the old corps we would of beat the crap out of these clowns. In the new corps where war crimes and torture have replaced honor and discipline, clowns like this are told oh they were just too stupid to know the difference and made a mistake. They dishonor everyone who has ever worn the uniform.

To everyone bashing black knight for "your and idiot" comment, I have news for you. He did that on purpose, clearly. For humor. And you all took it seriously, basically falling into his trap. LOL. Time for a self check.

half of you up here except for marcel probably never saw a lick of action. sosa your a joke 24yrs in the RESERVES!!!!!!! you probably were never in a grunt unit therefore you don't rate to even talk to these men. They were/are better Americans than most of you will ever be. get off their backs. If you don't like the American men who ACTUALLY fight, LEAVE! thats all i have to say to you. To Marcel thank you for what you did in spec ops. I was an 0351 in 3rd BN 6th Marines. went to Iraq was attached to Lima 1st platoon on the push through marjah 2 yrs agao. we are the only ones who know anything about the real military.

sosa your a joke

Here we go again......

"It's a state of mind..."

Yet thanks to their usage, the Nazis still have power. They have the power to remove entire chunks of history, and destroy their once great meanings. But hey, if you wanna give the psychopaths that used to slaughter entire families just for being jewish the power to destroy history at large, be my guest. Honestly, I thought the Marine standing in front of a KISS poster that got it's front half covered... Hey. Maybe KISS are nazis too, since their Ss look like the sig rune.

the only reason the nazis still have power is because the jewish community and others with weak minds allow them to. yes what happened was horrible but the longer you look for sympathy and the longer you dwell on it the stronger the group becomes. i am not saying forget it happened but being over sensitive to the littlest things like a flag that may resemble something used in wwII is taking it to far. the only reason people scream about things like this is to get noticed and publicity for their group.

This pic was not taken in a Nazi controlled land. The symbols go back to ancient norse runes, you will find "nazi" symbols among the native american, budists and norse. I am guessing that the flash is 1/2 nazi due to the symbol on his chest. Due to nazis being associated with showers should no servicemen take showers? The jewish bolsheviks killed over 35 million Russian christains in the holodomor in the 1930s, before WWII, but a pic with soldiers and russian stuff wouldn't cause outrage.

Michael Sosa.....30 Years a military man Huh! Wow, 6 years active, and then that reserve thing.....I don't want to over lap you but I did a few years active also, almost 25 years...and most of all the military when I was a member were Republicans, whom you call nazi or they weren't polictical minded at all. And you call the military warmongers, it sounds to me you are against two things in life, the Military and any polictical party that is not your democ-rat party. You think you are an American, only a democ-rat would come down that heavy on the Republicans, so you voted for BHo the Kenyan who has a desire to destroy our constitution and you helped by voting for him. Some of us (called by the name of republicans) want to keep God in our nation and you democ-rats want God out of everything it seems. If the Godly Marines made a mistake, they won't make that one again, they were too young to know the meaning of the SS marks, so give them some slack, they will protect your A — — in the long run.

Wiki...."The swast!ka is also a Chinese character used in East Asia representing eternity and Buddhism.".... but in the 20th century that symbol came to mean something else, and is not tolerated - despised in Europe and in North America.
Obviously, the "ss" rune has caused quite a stir, as well it should. Maybe some day, in a couple hundred years/generations - it will just be dust in history. But now is too soon.

I don't think it had anything to do with glorifying Nazis, these Scout Snipers just found a symbol they thought was cool and probably didn't know what it means to us. The SS symbol isn't as well known as the swastika.

Hey Allen , Your type of thinking assisted the perpetrators of the Holocaust. It's real innocent until you or your ethnic group is affected. I bet you think Iran with a Nuclear weapon is OK.

NEVER AGAIN !

steveaae- Of course there is the issue that in WWII, there were a number of Arab groups that worked with and were trained by the Nazis.

lib50 - I don't know, that symbol is on German uniforms in almost every WWII movie - of course maybe soldiers don't watch WWII movies. I'm more inclined to believe that they were just looking for a symbol associated with scaring people (PSYOPS) - that's been around as long as warriors have. Having served in 2 branches of the service, I do know there at least some servicemen that fall into the "Neo-Nazi/white-supremacist" category. I've known some who claimed it, and others whose attitudes sure implied it. My platoon sat through "Sensitivity Training" more than once, where among other things, we were told what symbols and tattoos were associated with racist groups, gangs, etc. and considered "not acceptable" - most of the Nazi symbols were included. I did, however have to take exception when they said that eagles were often symbols used by white supremacist groups - because everyone in the 101st Airborne has an eagle on their uniform, as did all Navy Petty Officer insignias, as well as many US symbols - so they couldn't really "outlaw" the "eagle".

Only an idiot would not know what this symbol is. It has not been flown for years. That is a lie.

Only an idiot wouldn't know what that symbol is? Really? WWII was over 60+ years ago! Have you ever heard Leno, Howard Stern, or anyone do a man on the street interview, half those people couldn't name the vice president let alone some symbol used 60 years ago.

Scout Sniper not SS OK your alternative is?

Alan:

The Jews and their Community stay low key on Nazi Issues, still fearful for their lives..

So many Americans do not know the Jewish persecution European/Spain Inquistion history, including what actually happened in the Holocaust. Jews were not the only ones killed because of their religion; it was the European disabled, Catholics, and anyone who had a physical defect. A pure person for Hitler's Germany was blond and blue-eyed.

This is another Generation of History not taught in today's Public Schools.

There is already enough Anti Semitism to fill the entire world. Who needs more.

AMEN, Norm! The best you can tag these boys with (looks like there were at least TEN of them) is that they are all to a man ignorant of a heavy, well known infamous symbol I knew the meaning of by the time I was six. My message to those ten: if you are dumb and thickheaded enough not to even know or care about that, you're just plan damn unfit for the U. S. Marines, penalty or no penalty.

BTW - Rank stupidity does not qualify as a threat to the constitution.

Norm,

You have no idea what you're talking about. Why don't you go talk to a Marine Scout Sniper about why this symbol was unofficially adopted? I assure you that you will walk away from the conversation amazed at how intelligent enlisted Marines actually are. It's comments like yours that make the Corps leadership shake in their patented leather shoes thinking that they have to placate the opinions of uninformed half-wits. Shame on the Corps leadership for not backing their troops and shame on Americans for assuming that these brilliant, brave young men associate themselves with Nazis.

All of which has nothing to do with the photo. Even if it was a friggin' swastika, what difference would it make? Who cares? Why is a photo of a symbol such a huge deal. Relax. Then go do a tour with those Marines and see if your priorities don't realign.

Norm -Red- you are the ones that have been dumbed down.

Afganistan was not a Nazi controled land. The symbols go back to ancient norse runes, you will find "nazi" symbols among the native american, budists and norse. I am guessing that the flash is 1/2 nazi due to the symbol on his chest. Due to nazis being assosciated with showers should no servicemen take showers? The jewish bolsheviks killed over 35 million Russian christains in the holodomor in the 1930s, before WWII, but a pic with soldiers and russian stuff wouldn't cause outrage.

These are not "kids"!!! I'm tired of hearing them described as such. They are US Marines and they should have known better. This entails getting an education, knowing your history and checking in with you command prior to posing for dumb-azzed photo's like this one.

Stop blaming the educational system because parents will not take responsiblity for their own children. Do you want teachers to wake them up in the morning and wipe their little butts too? The system is not dumbed down as you put it, the system is overwhelmed and maybe some parents should consider this before they pour another kid into it! The school system today was never set up to handle the amount of children and the issues that they bring to school with them each day. Those that have kids in the system need to understand this. Parents will need to do more!!!

Parents have other options, get off their fat lazy behinds, get a second or third job and pay for your kids to attend the private school of your choice. Here's an idea.

It's time to make these young men responsible for their own actions, stop making their first grade teacher responsible for them as men - geez, when are grown people going to get off the tit? They need to grow up and fast because lives are depending on them.

Kids? Please!!!

Military Veteran

Norm of Denver and Karol-537872: Talk about dumb down the education system. You do realize that the Nazi Swastika is an ancient symbol that is thousands of years older than the Nazi uses of them. Just because the Nazi used it does it make it wrong to have one. NO, unless you sympathise with the Nazi's and follow there ideology.

Get over yourself, the German Nazi machine has long been destroyed by America's Greatest Generation. Time to move forward and understand these Symbols don't nor ever belonged to Nazi's. Time to recognize there true meaning and to quit identifying them with Nazi's.

Tell that to the people who lost family in Nazi camps. I don't think that they would agree with you.

Any soldier that takes a photo should consider where this photo will end up - as in on the web and check with their command first - period.

Maybe you can take any kind of photo if you work over at the local Pigly-Wigly but when you are a government employee, you have to do what your contract says you must - act responsible!

Now they must do what men do when they were wrong - apologize and get back to work as this is why they are being paid.

Get real people, they probably didn't know any better. No surprise to me knowing what my kid is learning (or not learning in school these days). Remember that these are kids or at the most, very young adults. Be thankful that they are over there putting their lives on the line for us, and we are back over here judging them with our silly little opinions.

Karol-537872: The word swastika came from the Sanskrit word svastika, meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote auspiciousness. It is composed of su- meaning "good, well" and asti "to be" suasti thus means "well-being." The suffix -ka either forms a diminutive or intensifies the verbal meaning, and suastika might thus be translated literally as "that which is associated with well-being," corresponding to "lucky charm" or "thing that is auspicious."

^{Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient India as well as Classical Antiquity. Swastikas have also been used in other various ancient civilizations around the world. It remains widely used in Indian religions, specifically in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, primarily as a tantric symbol to evoke 'shakti'or the sacred symbol of auspiciousness. The swastika is also a Chinese character used in East Asia representing eternity and Buddhism.}

^{GET OVER IT, just because the Nazi's used them does not make them BAD.....}

Dumb down is when you forget or don't know the swastika was hindu and norse before the nazis. The sig rune was norse before the nazis. I won't give them the power to steal symbols from my people's history. If you want to you just give the current nutcases like aryan brotherhood power they don't have.

Again, Norm, AMEN! We must, ALL, get and stay involved in the fight to salvage our country from the efforts of the "progressive" movement that seeks to re-write both history AND our future. Though this symbol is repulsive to me, I believe to these warriors it was meant to signify "ruthlessness in mission", an attribute I agree with after having lived thru the political fiasco of Viet Nam.

I don't know what this has to do with the "progressive" movement. I don't think everyone knows the SS symbol and these guys were Scout Snipers. I don't think they meant to offend or glorify the Nazis. But what does that have to do with "progressives"?

I don't care how long they have been using the ss sign. What's next a swastika? If your father was in Europe fighting Nazis like mine did, you wouldn't defend this action. When I was 10 the Maltese Cross was popular. When he saw me with one he knocked by block off and then explained why I was to wear it again. That's what some adult should have done in this case. You're not the only ones to fight an enemy. You disrespect another generation who did. Show that ss insignia to anyone with any sense of history and they will id it Storm Troopers not Scout Snipers.

It stands for Scout Sniper, Period.

How many of you defenders of the picture and the symbol "read the runes" regularly? How many of you are Hindu or native Americans using these symbols regularly?

This is the 21st century. It is not a matter of what those symbols meant 400-1000 years ago, it matters what they mean TODAY. I just read an article about a 66-year-old former teacher who goes around Berlin eradicating neo-Nazi grafitti, because she realizes the danger of ignoring the past. Germany had several murders over a period of many years that were eventually linked to neo-Nazi terrorists; the authorities missed the link, and maybe could have saved several lives, if they had not" ignored the danger of ignoring the past". The link is below, for those who care to check it out.

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/03/10301241-a-retired-teachers-courageous-crusade-tackling-neo-nazi-hate

Those of you like lonereb who think that hate groups have no power are mistaken. The vast majority of terrorist activity that has occurred in the past several years is not linked to Muslims. We have had numerous killings in the US by racists and racist groups, and the number and membership of "hate" groups has increased by over 50% since 2000, much of that increase since the election of a black president. Crimes against Hispanics went up 40 percent between 2003 and 2007, according to FBI statistics, and you can bet that number has only continued to grow. People are murdered for no other reason than not being white.

Those of you telling us to grow up, get over it, and ignore it are the ones who do not know what you are talking about, or else you are racists yourself.

Norm,

SO, are you an educated person? If so, where were you educated? Who taught you?Now teachers are responsible for people making choices of their own? Teachers encourage others to act without consideration of others' feelings and experiences? You chose to respond as you did, so it's your teachers' fault? How about a little bit of responsibility for and self control of one's actions. This passing the buck is tiring. We are each accountable for our actions and choices. This is true for both adults and children. Teachers may teach, but children choose whether or not to learn. Quit the easy blame game.

I was going to write a long diatribe about this whole thing but I don't have that much time to waste. And, by the looks of the comments, it WOULD have been a waste of time. And, Norm, it's "death THROES". Looks like the education system failed again!!!

Look, all you "the SS were scum" people need to read up on history. NOT all SS worked in the Death Camps or Special Action branches. Read up on the Waffen SS. Read up on the Armor Forces. These troops were well trained troops and to many old Germans, they were the Marines of Germany. Well trained and tough to the point of dying in training so that they knew those that survived were ready for war.

Not anyone could be in the SS and not everyone can be a Sniper Scout. All you people that piss and moan about these snipers showing respect to the SS need to make sure that you do not take Bayer medical products as we that study know that Bayer experimented on living people in the Death Camps. All you people that drive German cars need to park them as Mercedes and BMW had slave laborers.

And do not forget that the Chinese products that are TODAY sold in America by companies that have ACTUAL SLAVES working for YOUR pleasure.

So before you dog out the Marines that think that they are also special, think about the WHOLE picture.

There still are Nazis and they are teaching their grandkids that BS. And they are joining our military services to get the training they will need when they kick off their RaHoWa (Racial Holy War.) Check out Stormfront.org. They are quite open about it. I'm retired Army and have seen a lot of special unit insignia, but never the sig runes in American forces. I can't imagine anyone dumb enough not to have told them to change it to prevernt misunderstandings.

The new Nazis are a bigger threat than the Taliban in the long run, because the Muslim terrorists will just kill a bunch of us and go home or go to hell. The Nazis will stay and try to take over here. Nothing is harder than fighting an enemy that is everywhere, even in our own ranks, passing for us.

steveaae- Of course there is the issue that in WWII, there were a number of Arab groups that worked with and were trained by the Nazis.

Norm of Denver:

Cool story, bro! Let me grade it for you!

- Improper use of "it's"

- No spacing after closing quotation mark

- No spacing after comma

- Improper use of 'throws' (it's death THROES)

FINAL GRADE: FAIL

So, THAT'S what you get when you "DUMB DOWN" the education system! Thanks for showing this "DUMB MARINE" the light!

Sosa they are not going to get charged because every freaking sniper team has posed with this flag for the past 20 freaking years. Its on Tshirts its on sweaters its on plaques and awards. Because people like yourself take it out of contexts and you want to bitch doesn't mean that the Marine Corps isn't going to change a damn thing.

I wear a sweater that has this symbol on it and when people ask me what the SS stands for I turn around and it says scout snipers. They don't mind after that. Get over it. The media has a way of twisting @!$%# to make sit seem wrong.

hey tanainkc actually the ss has been associated with the scout sniper team for a long time so unless you have been there you need to keep your opionated comments to yourself and keep voting obama like you did last election.

So you are saying that the Marines have been using this symbol for years, not just your boyfriends group, and I assume your BF isn’t in this picture, but all
Scout Snipers use this. Like all artillery FIST team members have a mailed fist
picture somewhere in their lockers.

Your statement is in contradiction with the Marine statement that this is an
isolated incident involving some naive folks who have never opened a history
book or turned on a TV before.

Interesting.

And you people think that this was a mistake?! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Thats funny, you know that you can order scout sniper flags and they alll look like this.

They ain't dumb at all, they are some the smartest most intelligent people in the USMC. Now, they are just holding up long time traditions. They all do it, and they are not racist you stupid idiots, not at all.

Amen sista...tell your boyfriend Semper Fi for me.

thank god for the scout snipers.

I will. Matter of fact I will greatly do that. Do you know right now what organization is the best Snipers in the world? Thats right, these USMC Scout Snipers you all keep dogging on.

They have the Title of the best Snipers. So maybe you should set all your stupid ignorance aside and leave them alone. They do a damn good job.

For ever 3 taliban that snipers shoot is 5 living Military members alive.

Thank you for the post. People who have never been there are ignorant to the facts.

I'll leave them alone when they stop using the symbol of the SS as their flag, if you knew the history of this symbol you wouldn't think it was ok.

how is it possible that an emblem like this has been missed for 20 years. If what you say is true, then someone needs to investigate the leaders of the scout snipers. This emblem meant death for 10 million, jews, gypsys, catholics, gays, and any other quote undesireables. If you don/t get it, you have never been treated or hated for what you are not who you are. As a veteran I understand not being accepted (Vietnam) when returning after doing what my country asked, but this is not the same. Nazi symbols are not acceptable in any organization that represents all Americans, and these guys do. It is hard to make some one understand what symbols like this do to those who suffered under them. If it is truly a symbol of sniper scouts, they need to find a new one. Just change the font no big thing. And like the song says TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS (LOL)

Thank you for the post. People who have never been there are ignorant to the facts.

Treason for a picture of a flag with runes that are found in norse,budist, american indian cultures from before WWII? This wouldn't even be treason in Isreal as afganistan was not a nazi held region

No Stephen, we all went through boot camp and born and lived in America not knowing what a freaking SS is?!?!?!!?!?

When is the world going to move on though? 1939 was 73 years ago. Ya'll need to go down to the South and rip down every confederate flag while your out there prosecuting racism.

Gee, lets just all go cry in a circle and hold hands cause the world isn't fair and just and just the way everyone wants it.

Look up Nazi symbol... different.. from the KISS (band) and Scout Snipers (marines) but kiss and scout snipers share the same SS's.

I don't have to speak anymore. I don't have thin skin, I am able to depict from 73+ yrs ago and 21st century.

I agree with you . . .the article has it partially right. The "SS" from NaZi germany was, primarily, a combat unit - they were known as the "Waffen SS". There was a "subsection" of the SS, known as "Einzatz Gruppen" or "Action Groups" that were responsible for the murder of Jews.

To make the comparison here is a stretch . . .being a former US Army infantry officer, I HARDLY believe these guys were comparing themselves to ANY branch of the SS, or "SchutzStaffel" as it was known . . .they were originally a group used to protect Hitler, much like our own Sercret Service. SO if we called the Sercret Service the SS, as their initials would indicate we could, are they NAZI's? I don't think so.

alan I believe in this country we have the freedom of speech and you are on a comment board, duh? I know that this symbol has been associated for years with scout sniper teams, but most do not. Most people associate it (especially in lightning bolt letters) with nazi's. I respect and admire our vets, being a son of one, but in this day and age when you post something to the world wide web you will come under more scrutiny like it or not. And I don't think that the marines in question should be charged with anything,mabe the marines should look at the symbols they use a little more. I think their is a reason why most have not seen this symbol associated with the Marine Corp. don't you ?

@SanDiego10

Please post a link to a web page showing an official or historic use of this symbol by Scout Snipers. I can't find any on the internet.

@San Diego

This is just more PC leftist bull@!$%#.

My Camaro has an SS on too! I guess Chevrolet is anti-Jew!

Hey, Leftists...buy the farm.

A quick google showed no such symbols for Scout Snipers.

So either they been hiding it for 20 years - which means they know what it could look like, thus know what the SS means.

Or you guys are vastly mistaking.

Ignorance is not an acceptable excuse. Considering that High School education is free in this country.

In case you guys are confused, Here is what the Nazi SS Symbol looks like

(Odd, seems comments cannot have links. Just Google for the Nazi SS Symbol and you will see)

This is what the "Scout Sniper" Symbol looks like

(Odd, seems comments cannot have links. Just Google for the Nazi SS Symbol and you will see)

Either we have 20 years of high school drop outs in our Sniper Schools (including the instructors and administrators) or everyone is hiding it for some very strange reason knowing full well what the symbol is.

@SabotAndHeat

Might want go google the Nazi SS Logo then compare that to your Camera SS logo and then the Marine SS Logo.

its possible they may have adopted that symbol for another use, but the prior meaning outweighs anything they tac on to it.

theres a LOT of subtle racist themes floating around these days. way too many for it to just be a coincidence. whether your boyfriend realized it or not that is a racist/hate symbol. whether those other snipers realized it or not that is a racist/hate symbol. regardless of anyones knowledge of the past or if its just an innocent mistake thats still a racist/hate symbol.

ignorance of the past is never an excuse. because as the old saying goes: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

once youve been informed--you know--and you cant use that as an excuse anymore.

youve just been informed. so has anyone else that bothered to read this. now its your job to spread the information to those that havent read it.

John don't jump on others for not knowing the history of a symbol when your knowledge of it's history stops at 1936. That symbol goes back much longer that that among my people. It is an old symbol in the old language of every Dane,Swede, Finn and Norwegian not to mention every one descended from the Saxons and Goths. Telling someone else their dumb because they know more than you do makes you seem kind of idiotic.

There is NO reasoning with people who can see a MUSLIM in Barack Obama, but can't see a Nazi Symbol in a Nazi symbol.

No reasoning with them.

Have a nice day.

Whether or not it has been associated with sniper teams for years or not, the comparison of this symbol with that of the SS is obvious. If this symbol has been used all this time by the Marines and their snipers, somebody better go to school and remove the damned symbol, flags, awards, all of it. It is shameful, indefensible, and inexcusable.

Quit bitchin about the symbol, it means whatever they say it means. All that matters is that they are doing their jobs protecting our azzes and killing as many bad guys as possible.

@JamesX

I'm fully aware of the SS differences... but considering they are all just letters and those letters represent whatever they say it does... your point is mute.

Even the Swastika itself, was a Hindu symbol prior to the Nazi's taking it. It's not your place to judge just by reading the cover....or is it that ok again?

P.S. The Internet is not the sole source of information in the world. Nor is it horribly reliable. So the fact that you didn't see the "horrible" Scout Sniper symbol doesn't lend any credence to the Marines "hiding" it.

SabotAndHeat,

This has nothing to do with left or right - it has to do with history and right and wrong. It isn't the letters as much as the letters in the shapes they are in.

First it was a video of Marine snipers urinating on corpses and now this? What the hell is going on?

@Shut yer yap

Your right...the claim that President Obama was a Muslim was ridiculous.

It's also ridiculous that all the posters here that claim these Scout Snipers are doing something wrong, also assume that there are no Jewish or Black Scout Snipers.

Reason with that.

I have a symbol for those marines.

What??

I'm just symbolizing the number 1 with my middle finger.

Turn in your uniforms and weapons.

Bring your sorry behinds home. I don't want you fighting for me.

Have a nice day.

@SabotAndHeat

Internet these day and age is enormous amount of information.

You guys' claime is that it has been in use for 20 years. So there MUST be some trace of it on the web. Either in the Official Websites of the USMC or in Facebook or other avenue of results.

The fact that there there seems to be a gaping black hole where this is concerned - and the fact that this is just recently came into light means

1) It is not publically known

2) If it is not publically known that means no one is talking about it

3) This not talking about it has been going on for 20 years

4) Why isn't it talked aobut? Either it is because no one knows what it means for 20 years, especially in 1982 (if we go back 20 years with the berlin wall going down 10 years later) or that people know what it means and know what it would look and thus don't talk about it to "outsiders".

Those are critical thinking skills nothing more.

As for Swastika being a Hindu Symbol, that is where you are ignorant. It is a BUDDIST symbol for fortune. The traditional Swastika is Horizontal, the Nazi one is angled. If you bring an Angled Swastika to a Buddist temple you will probably be politely asked to leave.

And the letter S.S. is a letter. It could be Sammi Sutherland, it could be Sunny South. But the GRAPHIC representation of the S.S. is a symbol. Just like the letters Swastika is a word, but the Imagry of a Angled Swastika is the same as saying "Nazi". There is a BILLION designs of S.S. that the marine could use. Instead they picked the exact same design as the S.S. a war crime organization that killed THOUSANDS of their fellow Americans, and probably hundreds of their fellow MARINES.

Ignorace? over 20 years? That is bull and you know it.

As for BLack and jewish Scout Snipers... you do realize that some Japanese people are Nazis too right? Talk about being moronic. I guess if Nazi has won those japanese Nazi's would still waer the uniform in the gas chamber.

@ Geoff

I agree that the Marines arent looking so good right now.

However, to conclude that they are all Nazi's is insane.

Seriously, "It isn't the letters as much as the letters in the shapes they are in."

So if they had handwrote the SS then there wouldnt be a problem?

tanainkc - And you should be charged with spouting off at he mouth without using your brain. Their actions show a lack of empathy or understanding...not collusion with the enemy. That is of course, unless you are now equating the Taliban with the Nazi SS symbol. And if so, please show where that has taken place.

Shut yer yap, if you don't want them fighting for you then you better be ready to take their place.

Give the marines the bird all you want, they can't care less, they have more important matters to worry about

Pick up your uniform and your weapon shut yer yap, and get to the front line because all the well trained soldiers were fired and sent home.

Okay Geoff ' how the Marines are not going to get charged with much really in correlation with the Snipers "urinating" on the corpse's of the dead Taliban.

Find exactly a point in the video where the urine leaves their penis and lands on an actual BODY PART of the dead Taliban? Oh wait, it never touches their bodies... EVER... I have watched it 10 times and never once did the urine touch their body...

NEXT!!!!!

@James X

No. There does not have to be a trace on the internet.

Besides...its not a claim. It's a fact. Perhaps if had been around the military this wouldnt be disparaging you so.

SABOT,

I honestly don't believe it would have been an issue if the letters had been in any other shape. Call me ignorant, stupid, or whatever - it's just my opinion.

While I am not a vet, I have two Marines in my family. My grandfather was wounded on Iwo Jima and my uncle served two tours in Vietnam. I'm proud of them as anyone would be, but I don't think either one of them would see it any different than I do.

SANDEIGO10. If you are honestly a family member of a marine than that makes you an even bigger moron than someone of the general public for your statements. The symbol in this photo is not the logo for Scout snipers. The logo is not even close to the same. The logo is that of the Nazi SS and has been for years. PERIOD. The only thing similar is the SS initials. Scout Snipers do have a logo and again it is NOT the 1 in this photo. The symbol is not at all related. With that being said do I believe that this really could have been an honest mistake on the part of the marines group in the photo?....absolutely because I (we)don't know the full details, but I see nothing wrong with an investigation because ...is it a mistake? .....maybe...maybe not. but don't sit here and down play the idea that there actually could be people in the military that would or could do something like this. So let the people do there research and if they find out nothing is wrong then no discipline should be taken. This incident true or false will not take away any credibility to the fact that most of Americans in the military are true heroes! On that note stop posting false information on symbols you clearly know absolutely ZERO about.

@Shut yer yap

Awww, your mad.

"Bring your sorry behinds home. I don't want you fighting for me."

Too bad...but you don't run @!$%#.

John Doe.

Who said anything about "flipping the bird?" Don't you know the number 1 when you see it? I work hard. I'm highly trained. I can show the number 1.

Like I said before, You don't know diddly about me or my family. Let me just say, there's plenty of fight in my DNA.

Try to come back with less predictable responses.

Well trained soldiers don't do stupid stuff like these guys did.

Here you are, defending troops who don't "Support the Troops." Ignorance, incarnate.

Many HONORABLE Marines will be left after these guys are sent home. Honorable marines of all faiths, creed and colors.

Honorable marines who have a sense of history and know better not to do something as loathesome and hateful.

Honorable Marines who are of the Jewish faith or who just plain, don't appreciate risking their lives to fight lowlifes while lowlifes dishonor the uniform.

I don't want you to fight for me.

Come home. Tend the farm or something. Bag groceries at the Piggly Wiggly. Don't misrepresent me to the world.

Have a nice day.

@Briguy

You have no idea what your talking about. You have never been around a Scout Sniper from the Marines.

Most of these guys have the same letters tattoed on with the full words finished...'Scout Sniper'.

"It's symbol of the Nazi SS and has been for years."

Correction...was a symbol for the Nazi SS. They are gone now. Talk about living in the past.

Sabot and Heat.

..."Awww, you're mad"...

Just a tad. It's just a lil' symptom of humanity, I suppose.

Say, what's it's like for you automatons?

Why is it that, when conservatives run out of talking points, they start up with the, "You're angry" thing?

Have a nice day.

@Geoff

No name calling bro. Agree to disagree.

Thanks to your family and their service.

@Shut yer yap

Why is it when you Liberals get angry you start with the "talking points" thing?

See what an easy game this is?

"Honorable Marines who are of the Jewish faith or who just plain, don't appreciate risking their lives for..."

Since you've most likely never risked your life for a fellow American (regardless of the light you might portray him in) your just Monday morning quarterbacking.

Come on people!! They put their lives on the line for us every day.. More than you could even imagine!!

Quick question.. If my former High School has the same mascot as one just miles up the road.. Does that make them the same??

Oh boy - talk about a sure fire way to alienate Israel. There now we have pissed off our ally in the ME :)

Yeah, these are symbols were used a long time ago, but we progressed to the alphabet a couple of centuries ago. What is it with some of you - yearning to be cave-men?

Well, the statement that this has been used for years actually contradicts the statements in the article. Wonder who is lying?

To all the political experts out there, those men in the photograph could be either Dems or Repubs or both - yeah some of them swing that way. Thing is, our military, funded by our tax dollars, swear to protect our country and uphold the noblest of our ideals.

@Shut Yer Yap

Hey, this automaton appreciates your different view points. Great conversation. I politely disagree with you and I'm signing off. Take care.

P.S. The Marines could surely benefit from a level headed person like yourself.

@sabot and heat. Who in the heck are you to tell me what I have been around. 2nd off. It doesn't matter if the Nazi SS is no longer around. it is no less there symbol today than it was 70 years ago. Just as the Nazi symbol is still the symbol it was years past. You have to be a bigger moron than San Deigo10 to believe that the U.S. Marine Corps allowed Marines to use this symbol and after all these years not one person has said anything about it until this photo? Apparently it must have been a secret ops symbol and you and Sanddiego10 where the only 2 people smart enough to decipher that. Dude serious stay off the internet because you just look like a fool when you write.

I have had some pretty "enlightening" conversations with some of you people who are whining about Marines using a "Nazi" symbol (it isn't even used exclusively for Nazism, for Christ sakes), yet also having the nerve to say things like "Muslims must die", "Islam is a poisonous religion", "Kill those damn towel-heads/camel-jockeys/whatever", and other such crap. Really says a lot about what kind of people you all are. Yet I'm sure every one of you will try every trick in the book to rationalize it.

As a great man once said, "Let's not have a double-standard here. One standard will do just fine."

@JamesX - I did a google image search on Scout Sniper Logo and found no less than 14 pictures showing the rune SS logo on various flags, patches etc. So your argument doesn't hold water.

Having served in my beloved Corps and in combat AND having had family killed in WWII by the Nazis, I think I am qualified to speak on this subject. You people making a big deal out of this need to get a freaking life. These men are Marine Scout Snipers, the best there are. This logo has been in use within the Marine Corps for years (well over 20). Just because the public isn't aware of it doesn't make it less so. How many John Q. Public know the logo for H&HS-31 MAG-31? Or how many know what the term on the Green Berets emblem means? Very few.

You want to be angry about something. You want to be pissed about anything and everything. Get over it.

To my brother Marines... Semper Fi.

@Briguy

Dude serious stay off the internet because you just look like a fool when you write.

Says Briguy, with the numerous grammatical errors.

Who the heck am I to tell you what you've been around? Just someone in the military who is calling you on your lack of knowledge of the military.

I just walked over to the Marine Corps detachment here on Fort Benning just to see if non-Scout Sniper Marines had seen that before.

Who the heck were they to disagree with you too!? Ha.

Anyway... bye troll.

@DBachrach

It's pointless to argue. Theses are the same people who will claim the moon landings were faked.

It's always easy for the weaker to tear down. Thus, the tearing down of these Marines.

P.S. Thanks for your service Marine.

^ What that guy said. Especially the part about thanking marines for their service. (That should go for all branches of service really, but I'm sure they know.) :)

Semper Fi Dbachrach! Thank you so much for your knowledge of the USMC considering you served as well as I have.

It makes my blood boiling to hear of such blasphemyspoken upon my boyfriend and his fellow Scout Sniper community. These guys stick their necks out time and time again, always gone on missions. I sometimes don't hear from them for 25 days. Last time they were gone is and I didn't hear from them our good friend LCpl Benjamin W. Schmidt was killed by 2nd Tanks.

These are the constant dangers that Snipers and Marines alike always have to deal with. The enemy wanting to kill them and our own people killing them by negligence, now they have to worry about a bunch of cave men Americans calling them racist. Great.

To CJ,

I have had some pretty "enlightening" conversations with some of you people who are whining about Marines using a "Nazi" symbol (it isn't even used exclusively for Nazism, for Christ sakes), yet also having the nerve to say things like "Muslims must die", "Islam is a poisonous religion", "Kill those damn towel-heads/camel-jockeys/whatever", and other such crap. Really says a lot about what kind of people you all are. Yet I'm sure every one of you will try every trick in the book to rationalize it.

As a great man once said, "Let's not have a double-standard here. One standard will do just fine."

Nowhere NEAR the same. But then again, in your little corner of the world, everything must be perfect. Try saying that to people who have lost relatives in the Twin Towers, the London Subway, the nightclub in Malaysia, the civilian contractors in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who were BEHEADED JUST FOR BEING FOREIGNERS, and many other such attacks. Maybe that will put things more in perspective for you. These people did NOTHING to these animals, and they were killed like cattle. These people are animals - no matter how the few "Americanized" Muslims you've met act toward you.

A word of advice - Be careful who you point the sword at.

Robert, there are two things wrong with your statement:

1. The killings you cite cannot rightfully be projected upon an entire religion or group of people. What you're saying is merely generalization based on the actions of the few. Some would call it obsessive paranoia.

2. I am half Muslim, and I am by no means "Americanized." So when you say Muslims are animals, you are calling ME an animal as well. Think about that. You might want to take your own advice.

JamesX,

There is a really easy way to truly find out, once and for all, if this 'SS' style is used in Scout Sniper units Corps-wide or not! Just join the Corps and find out for yourself!

It will be a great opportunity for you to apply your critical thinking skills!

I'm guessing that's the "one issue" you'll use as a reason to vote against your own interests this November, right?

What the "illegals" issue has to do with this report you ASS......L

E!!!!

Ron.

Let's review your post..

You are upset at the "seige" of criminal minded heathens who are stealing from the squeaky clean people.

What were the Nazis upset about?

Sleep on it and get back to us.

Have a nice day.

You're absolutely right, Ron. I think we should take the Marines in that picture, send them to a special training camp where we can indoctinate them with correct Fascist ideology and then set them loose to ply their sniper trade on illegal aliens. Hell, on legal aliens also. In fact, on anyone who isn't exactly like you and me.

You're a true American, Ron - a True American Nazi.

Amen brother

Does not take much of a statement to get called a Nazi @!$%#, you sure are grasping at straws by figuring i think all Americans are squeaky clean because i want the Immigration laws enforced or acting like you know how i will vote in any election.

You all have a wonderful day and let me know if you can ever debate without name calling.

Nobody called you a name, Ron. Nobody's buying your martyr act. Get over it.

Xmas tree.

Holiday Tree.

FRENCH Fries.

FRENCH Toast.

There, take that!

Have a nice day :)

Haha, I take it you are French?

Joyeux Noel my friend. (My 6th grade Math teacher was French. Sadly though, I know little else of the language.)

This flag was probably provided by Knight Armament in Florida. These type of nazi symbols are all over Florida. It's an ignorant reaction to all the illegal mexicans in this state. However, I think even kids are familiar with these nazi symbols from all the ww2 themed video games they have played through the years. If one is old enough to carry a gun and doesn't know a SS symbol when they see one, we better call Forrest Gump to teach them about life. Most of our Military people are fine human beings but just like in any group there are bad ones.

What a stupid excuse. This is wrong, wrong, wrong, and people with a brain know it. Don't tell me that the Marines did not know what this looks like. They should be smarter than that. The US keeps making more and more wrong decisions and it makes people hate us more. Man up and become what a Marine should be. No I have not fought in the war but my Father gave up his health fighting in WWII in Germany for our freedom. Be compasionate about people and things. This is for 44122's comment and all the other ignorant people who think we should get over it. We should never forget what horror was done to innocent people through hate. America should be better than this.

These are not "kids"!!! I'm tired of hearing them described as such. They are US Marines and they should have known better. This entails getting an education, knowing your history and checking in with you command prior to posing for dumb-azzed photo's like this one.

It's time to make these young men responsible for their own actions.

Kids? Please!!!

Military Veteran

Maybe their education was so good that they knew this symbol was used by the norse, budists, american indians before the nazis used it. They might also know that afganistan was not a nazi held nation so the flag must have been for something else.

@steveaae

I think ou are confusing the SS Logo with the Swatzika. One is very old the other is specific to the SS Organization. Even the Swatzika is differnent the Traditional Swatzika is flat, the Nazi one is angled, that is how you tell them apart.

Also Afghanistan is in an area where this probably means what it did before the nazis hijacked it because because these are the same people for whom it was an ancient symbol. In fact that symbol would be pre-Islam for those people.

Laughing, the ignorant seems to be on the other foot when someone like you cannot tell the difference between Mexicans and Cubans.

Steve, your comment holds no merits. Not only have you used it in every post, indicating you have no other argument, but as a Buddhist, I NEVER use the SS symbol, because I understand that most people are smart enough realize that it means something entirely different then what it originally meant. I'm sure you would never say "@!$%#" in the connotation of the 1850's and use the excuse "That's how people talked back then. It meant something different."

These "boys" as they are often called are old enough to volunteer to put their lives on the line in defense of this country. And while I thank them every day for their service, they should be old enough to understand that the use of such symbols is offensive, and that there will possibly be consequences to their actions. Like the supposed "WTC mosque." There was such a huge public outcry because it was "offensive to the memories of victims of 9/11." Well THIS is offensive to the memories of Jews, Gypsies, Gays, and the mentally retarded that died during the Holocaust.

The censored word is supposed to be the N-word, by the way.

It Stands for Scout Sniper! Nothing else. This Marines would have killed as many Nazis as they could. If the Marines fought in the Eurapean Theater. They are not Facist. They are proud that they are the best at what they do.

Unfortunately they did it themselves....

...."Please, don't associate our arm forces with HATE"....

Please don't excuse, enable or overlook the hatred and stupidity of some in the armed forces.

Have a nice day.

The march backwards has commenced.

SCOUT SNIPERS. This doesn't have anything to do with Nazis, this is not knowing the SS symbol. This is just a stupid mistake. Not everybody knows the SS symbol like they do the swastika.

Pretty sure just about everything that Marines have on them is inspected and vetted.

More than just these Marines need to be dishonorably discharged.

Have a nice day.

Take your own advise and Shut yer yap. It stands for Scout Sniper. Their is no hinding meaning.

Sherm,

The double-S has been used by Marine Scout Snipers for quite some time. I have known some Marines to have the double-S tattooed on their bodies when they complete Sniper school. Marine Corps Scout Snipers tried to take a symbol that inspired fear and sorrow and turn it around on the enemy as a reminder that we will not be defeated. As a Jew and a Marine, I don't feel that this brings any shame on the Marine Corps or the country. Shame on the Marine Corps leadership for bending like reeds in the wind and not taking up for their troops.

Amen Brother! The shame is that these Marines are even taken to task over this prideful display!

And thank god for amnesia. Thats whats wrong with people, do we constantly whine about the heinous acts of Manson and his followers, Gengis Khan, etc. If the internet wouldnt continually posts this crap we could all move on. YES IT WAS TERRIBLE. Were done here. Let it rest and quit whining about it, If you want to dedicate your time to something useful how about current issues like Africa and its living conditions, starving people around the world, children and animals being abused. This world has plenty of horrific events to dedicate your time to, we really dont need to spend our time constantly regurgitating the nazi regime. WE GET IT, ITS OVER, I DOUBT HITLERISM WILL EVER BE LOVINGLY EMBRACED. Now move on shut up and do something useful with your time.

"Hitlerism," as you call it, WILL re-emerge, HAS re-emerged, and will CONTINUE to re-emerge if we choose to ignore the lessons of the past. It's been shown time and again. Let me give you a little crash course history lesson. One of Hitler's major inspirations in perpetrating the Holocaust was the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by Turks against Armenian Turks at the tail end of World War I. Hitler saw there was very little public outcry against the Turks, and figured there would be none if the same thing happened to the Jews. Fortunately, he was wrong, at least at the end of the war (At the beginning of Hitler's regime, when Jews were first starting to be prosecuted, very few people cared). Fast forward to Pol-Pot. Murdered hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Cambodians. Somalia. Darfur. Some say pre-war Iraq. We are most definitely NOT "done here" when the same issues continue to re-emerge in every generation.

It truly is sad to see the nazi SS symbol displayed by the Marine Corps snipers. 1 of my relatives was in Poland when the blitzkrieg happened and he had to kill a couple of Storm troopers to fight another day. When in Israel as best man at a friends wedding, the guest gave me a standing round of applause for being the descendant of a Polish commando. The SS were responsible for sending 6 million Jews and gypsies and Poles to their deaths and anyone who doesn't have a problem with the symbol that represents war criminals has historical amnesia. I visited a concentration when stationed in Germany and it had a profound effect on me. Please find another symbol to represent your expertise. This symbol shocked me as a veteran.

the ss flags are black with slanted ss and circles around both s's. the hypersensitivity of anyone on this issue with the marines is just a pathetic attempt to garner recognition for them and their group. this is what our country has become we see something we dont like we scream racisim or its not politically correct and all of a sudden you have made a villian out of whoever you wanted to. its pathetic this nation needs to get back on track and dump all this pc crap.

lol big deal for nothing you right ...people get over it

emminpa,

Wow! You are a true idiot. I cant believe the mentality of the people now a days. Really backwards.

emminpa,

i believe you are referring to the swastika, idiot. the ss symbol does not look like a bent x, idiot. know you @!$%# before you start calling people idiots, idiot.

Who is the true idiot? A person has to wonder about the one who stoops low enough and has the mindset to call others that name.

Let me see . . . "get over it." 9/11 . . . get over it. That was so many years ago . . . who even remebers or cares what happened? Pearl Harbor . . . just get over it. Revolutionary War and founding fathers garbage . . . just get over it. Civil War . . . (especially you southerners) . . . just get over it! SS and Nazi's . . . (you know what goes here!). Who needs history anyway? History is just a bunch of junk cluttering up a persons mind, keeping them from learning useful stuff. Get over it!

Symbology is an old way of saying things but many symbols have many meanings if your too illiterate to read a real book on symbollogy read Dan Browns novels and you'll get the idea. Because a group used a symbol doesn't mean they own it. The next group to use it gives it their meaning. Time to put the nazis to rest Hitler is dead and gone.

hypersensitivity is all i see in this article. the symbol is similar to the nazi SS symbol but it is not the same. one "Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation" is obviously the culprit here for the "outrage"

YES AMERICAN -22... GET OVER IT.

Learning from the past is one thing, repetitivly whining about the past is a completely different concept. In life you can choose to complain and victimize or you can choose to learn from your mistakes and move on to more positive ventures.

GET OVER IT ! MOVE ON AND LIVE BETTER !

Victimizing and or criticizing every move act or photo you see on facebook, myspace or whatever social network that comes along gets tiring and just drags the human race to lower levels, try being positive for a change.

It happened "fifty years ago" so it's ok to use a symbol of an organization that killed 6 million people? Just because their Marines doesn't make them infallible, not racist, or heroes. Also, because a group of them appears in this photo doesn't mean that all Marines are guilty of anything - don't condemn all of them.

AMERICAN.

those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

history is a heavy teacher, that is, if your willing to learn from it

We must be. I honestly did not recognize that symbol as anything but from the KISS band and I am older than those soldiers.

I love the excuse used...who could have known that Nazis weren't just "snipers"??? Certainly not this brilliant group???

Who could have know that norse, budists, and american indians used nazi symbols before the nazis existed? Or that afganistan was not nazi controlled. Certainly this brilliant group.

gary docuhe bag

it is too close to the horrible things that happened to so many people. They should get a different style.

The jewish bolsheviks killed over 35 million russian christians in the 1930s holodomor. Should a hammer or sickle defame anyone seen with one?

So because the nazis used it anyone who is a pagan still worshipping the old way is suddenly a nazi. I wouldn't doubt you could find that symbol on rune stones from the ancient days. One of the nazi symbols meant one who worshipped Thor.

and you call yourself a patriot...with no sense of irony I suppose....

See how they try to manipulate you by re-directing the discussion. Thats how they work. They try to keep one from the truth. Manipulation, perception management they call it. They wish to control how you think.

Agreed with patriot and knowsavage, why cant you just respect the men and women who fight for our country you pieces of sh$t, yeah they messed up and probably did it on purpose to make a statement, basically saying they are a deathsquad which being a sniper, you basically are.

Questioning someone does not mean that you don't respect them, it is a basic principle that service men and women are serving for, free thought and speech. In this country you are allowed to question, in fact that is how we began as a country questioning a monarchy. To denagrade someone for doing so is like saying someone isn't an american because thier opinion differs from yours; wait thanks for making my point PATRIOT. BY the way it's President Obama ,get used to it !

Naive mistake?? Yeah, I mean gee...how could they actually be expected to know what a Nazi is? Let's hear it for ignorance!! Good grief is right!

AP, do you know what it is? the symbols arem't even the same you moron

steveaae,

Jewish Bolsheviks, eh? I doubt it, but I know an ignorant guy named steveaae

I see Nazi memorabilia all the time in motorcycle gangs and Government suplus stores, etc.....we're talking SWASTIKAS here! Iron Crosses, etc....should every symbol be banned, and prosecuted, etc/? No freedom anymore because it's not "politically correct?"....WTF?!

I'm a biker and within our culture the rebel battle flag means you are a non-conformist to the culture of cagers( those of you who drive cars) You notice I didn't say rebel flag because that wasn't the flag of the confederacy.Should all those of germanic or nordic ethnicity stop naming their male children noble wolf because one bad man had that name (adolph). Grow up and let the nazis die its way past time.

diego 10 I have to disagree with you on one statement you made. I was a Navy SEAL sniper and I'm pretty sure we're the best in the world, with sniper scouts a very close 2nd, :) hoohaa! And with respect Semper Fi

This is a Scout Sniper Platoon picture. The Marines in the picture are proud to be Scout Snipers. The flag with the two S's stands for Scout Sniper.

no rucko didnt you know kiss was a nazi group too thats why they used the SS in their name...now i broke the story lets see how many pc idiots run with it.

Rucko1 That was my first thought as well.

All the "don't be offended" "Kiss has the letters, SS in it too" comments are brought to you by the same people who think that calling a tree with lights a Holiday Tree is an attack on Christians.

And we ALL know how many Christians were gassed a few decades ago, don't we?

Have a nice day, "Thick Skins."

KISS= Knights In Satan's Service. They had to wear make up to hide their horns and costumes to hide their tails and cloven feet. Really! Look it up!

That's not what kiss means ... you look it up. That was made up.

It was a joke! Trying to add some humor to this otherwise angry episode of Jerry Springer. Horns, tails and cloven feet ? Really!

Yeah, And I have a big red bride in San Francisco to sell you!, Wow the backwards mentality of you war mongrel's.

How much for the big red bride? I'm interested.

common man--yup and you being 'truely (sic) retarded' would have a fun time trying to sell your nazi bs to anybody beyond your amerikaan wannabes

"Highly trained," yet posing in front of the SS flag?

On the one hand, being dumb enough to NOT know how stupid it is is, well... stupid.

On the other hand, being dumb enough to KNOW, and then taking pictures of it is, well... stupid.

On the OTHER other hand, being either of those things while simultaneously using the other tine in your tongue to profess profound alliance with ISREAL is, well...

You get the picture.

Have a nice day.

Only the truely retarded or libs would read anything else into this symbol.

Then you won't be offended if I give you the symbol of my middle finger...

Common Man--I realize this is a logo used by the Scout Snipers. However, one does not need to be "retarded or a lib" to realize this also significantly resembles the logo of the German Schutz-Staffel. For this reason, the logo must be put out of commission. Don't forget the atrocities that are associated with the SS. I know you probably hate that word; atrocities. Too bad.

I wonder what the 6 million "retarded or libs" read into this symbol when it came calling for their deportations and subsequent murders.

Good Call !

I cannot believe we are all still arguing about this.

I honestly have never seen this symbol outside of KISS and I have a Bachelor of Science in Engineering.

I just read all of the responses to my original post and I would like to say some things.

First and foremost, let's stick with the subject, two distinctive SS leterrs, not the swastika, or liberalism, or President Obama, or a Camaro, are what's the issue. To all the defenders of these Marines, it's a lost cause. The Marine Corps leadership has already acknowledged wrongdoing. I'm not sure of the punishment, but the Marine Corps has admitted that this was inappropriate.

I know it upsets people when our troops are criticized, but get used to it, there are a lot of bad eggs in the ranks. Our training is very specific regarding hate groups and symbols and this is a violation of our policies. The military as a whole is a highly revered institution, but there are a lot of bad folks in there.

Now, I have no idea how someone can say that 30 years of service has no bearing on my opinion on this. Saying that I was a REMF or pencil pusher is an insult to this old Navy Nurse. I was in the first AND second gulf war patching our guys up. In fact, I did more as a reservist than when I was on active duty constantly being mobilized. I was even an instructor and trained Navy Corpsmen and Marines at Camp Pendleton before those guys were shipped out to Iraq and Afghanistan. I've been retired less than a year.

Even if I wasn't ex-military doesn't mean that I, and many others on this post, don't have an opinion on this. Granted, I shouldn't have said "American Republican Nazi Party", but many Republicans act like Nazis, look who's in the Republican primaries now. Having conservative views on some issues is fine, but most people who identify themselves as Republican are conservative on every single issue. Part of the mindset is that military members can't be touched. I say, if you're in the service, you're held to a higher standard, so I can't defend them.

And to the lady who told me to leave American. No way, I love it here!

Should have said America. But American is good too.

I would bet most of you whiners never served a day in the military. Shut TFU and leave my Marines alone. Dum asses.

Hope you are not the one teaching them history.

RAS.

Who's "Dummer," the "whiners" or the one whining about the whiners?

You don't know diddly about me or any of the other posters, here.

How simple-minded is it to excuse disgusting behaviour because you have an afinity for the purpetrators?

Let's assume that NONE of us here have served in the military.

I'd wager a bet that there are PLENTY of Jews who have. I'd even take a chance and say that there are still living veterans that stormed Berlin to free Jews from those that proudly wore the same SS symbol.

I'd even go as far to say that there are many, many Marines who are braver and smarter than these guys who are risking their lives to have a world free from that kind of idiocy and who would NOT appreciate their image being tarnished by these pseudo marines. Posing with Nazi symbols. Urinating on dead Taliban...

You insult the honor of honorable sodiers and embarrass this country.

I think YOU should take your own abrreviated advice.

The level of genius on this board is amazing.

Have a nice day :)

The march of the White Male Supremacists is coming back again.

The Jews.

Women.

African-Americans.

Gays.

They're tired of the attention the above groups receive. They want their thunder back.

They're under seige.

Have a nice day.

Well if they come for this nordic germanic woman whose uncles fought the nazis they better be ready to die. You do realize the nordic people fought the nazis and those are their symbols (same ancient religion) too.

Nope.

You SHOULD, however, apologize for being...

Well. You know what you are.

Have a nice day.

Turn off Springer. Get out of the trailer and take your meds.

Are you out of your F*$king mind? Do you know how stupid the Army is? Do you know in 2004 the USMC went in and destroyed the city of Fallujah and then gave it to the Army, moved on and then were called back because the Army couldn't hold down the city? AND THEN Fallujah became a Marine strong hold and we demolished that city and took charge and we didn't have problems like that again.

Get the hell out of my country you stupid little a$$ hole. Don't insult my Marine Corps that I have been to 3 combat tours and all the Army is good for is their women cause they are easy for my male Marines to get to.

First of all "an great Army" I think its obvious your educational backround....ummm 4th grade maybe? So I won't hold it against you for making the most redicoulous statement I read on this post. The Marine Corps has a very different mission than our Army and maybe you would know that if you had a better education. And for the record the United States Marine Corps is older than the Army, Navy and our government and fought in more wars and conflicts than all the other services combined. Do your research before making absurd statements. Semper Fi!

San Diego..

You just insulted the troops.

Hand over your conservative credentials.

By the way, I didn't see any ARMY troops in that stupid picture.

Have a nice day.

Ooh Rah---- San Diego....Don't forget to hose down those Army girls first. lol

and to "shut yer yap" you obviously are a fan of censorhip like the Nazi's were.

OTTI the Marines might be older but they don't even have their own department because they are not worthy of it.

On board my ship all I seen them do was guard the captain and wax his decks.

Missed

America’s

Requirement

In

Naval

Enlistment

Department of the Navy is a political status clearly. Thanks for the ride! The Marines will do the real fighting now. Don't loose track of what we are talking about here, its not about Navy vs Marines or Army vs Marines. They all fight for us, our freedom and for those who can not protect themselves. Also lets not stereotype over 200,000 Marines for what you feel is politically incorrect.

hey yap,

maybe he is a little pissed off at the fact that people who have such little knowledge of the military and what they do on a daily basis, make such retarded statements. the marines are part of the navy, the seals, are part of the navy.

the marines are assault troops and damn good ones at that, if the president declared war he has full use of the USMC THEY go in first. god bless all of them! the seals are special ops, and have a different mission

the scout snipers are there to provide marine units with long range accurate fire ( the best in the world my man) the top sniper in viet nam? carlos hathcock marine sniper. this is a very demanding job. as far as i'm concerned they can use whatever symbols they want......when all of you pc guys take a walk in their shoes then you can bitch. but you are here and they are there ducking bullets fighting for your right to complain about stupid sh#t, really......oliver you need to read up on some Marine history......sounds like you really have no idea what they do....

i will get in trouble for this but i do not care........

the average marine recruit when he leaves basic IS better trained than the average army recruit. they do not call them the few and the proud for nothing

different missions though......but the army and marines have been butting heads for ever......just inter service rivalries

to be fair.......most medal of honor winners come from the army, but the standards for earning the MOH are higher in the marines any medal

we need them all......for they protect our country...would you rather the war be here or there?

SanDiego10, shame on you. There's always been friendly rivalries between the branches, but you should never call an entire branch stupid. I know this man strongly offended you, but there are better ways of firing back. Remember, the army defends our freedoms including what he said and what you said.

Yes, most white motorcycle clubs(Hells Angles, etc.) profess to be skinhead and Nazi affilates. Weak minded followers of a lost cause.They hate anyone who is not like them. All members are white and confess to be followers of the nazi way. Though they would like everyone to think they are just a social club. Bunch of social rejects

Move.

Most of the motorcycle groups you mentioned are what we and they call 1% ers definition 1% of bikers cause 100% of the trouble. There are many 1% groups that are other than white and are affiliated with those groups. Should I stop being of mongollian descent because a group of 1% calls themselves the Mongols. Or stop being of Gothic descent because a group of teenagers with bad taste in clothes and makeup call themselves goths. I don't give up my past for them. I don't give them my symbols or anything else that is mine culturally.

Yeah, those who think that they are fight for freedom are truly lost. They need to go do some real history.

Your so smart why dont you go fight for your own freedom? Get off your ass, go pick up a gun and fight in a foreign country. Nazi's stole their symbols from ancient civilizations. Does that mean that these ancient civilizations were all anti-Jewish?

How many people on this wall have jumped out of a C-130 into a combat zone? They are quick to point their fingers at others though aren't they? How about you all focus on real issues with this country before you attack soldiers who put their lives on the line everyday. Why not ask why your government is screwing you over and impeaching on your rights? I agree knowsavage freedom is truly lost in this country and people are just too ignorant to see it.

You are a racist by bringing a person's skin color into this.

No, he is correct. There are those who still carry them selves like this. I see it everyday.

Take a good look at the picture Mo.