World Jewish News

US Marines vow to prevent use of Nazi symbols

The US Marine Corps said Friday it would take steps to ensure troops never display Nazi symbols but stood by a decision not to punish a group of marines who posed with a Nazi-like flag.
Both Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the head of the Marine Corps condemned the incident but stopped short of second guessing commanders who concluded the sniper team members in the photo acted out of ignorance rather than prejudice.
"Racist and anti-Semitic symbols have absolutely no place alongside the men and women of America's armed forces. Secretary Panetta has asked the Marine Corps to look into this matter and to take appropriate action," his spokesman George Little said in a statement.
After Panetta's statement, the Marine Corps commandant, General James Amos, promptly announced measures designed to root out any use of Nazi imagery among sniper teams and to prevent a repeat of the flag photo taken in Afghanistan.
"I want to be clear that the Marine Corps unequivocally does not condone the use of any such symbols to represent our units or Marines," Amos said.
Panetta fully supported the commandant's response, Little told AFP.
The photo taken in September 2010 showed several Marines "with a flag that depicted what appeared to be a Nazi-related symbol," the corps said in a statement Thursday.
Authorities were only notified about the case in November 2011 after the picture was posted online, officers said.
The Marines involved were members of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force.
The local command investigating the episode had "determined that the Marines in the photo were ignorant of the connection of this symbol to the Holocaust and monumental atrocities associated with Nazi Germany," Amos said.
The marines were sent to a class to ensure they "fully understood the historical use of the SS symbology," he said.
Amos said he had ordered senior officers to determine the prevalence of SS symbols among sniper teams and asked that training include a clear prohibition against SS or other "inappropriate symbols."
He also asked his top non-commissioned officer to drop his duties in Washington and meet with every sergeant and marine in sniper and reconnaissance teams "to reinforce my message and expectations," his statement said.
The flag photo follows a damaging video last month that showed US Marines urinating on the corpses of insurgents in Afghanistan, which has prompted a formal investigation.
Pentagon leaders worry such images harm the military's reputation by highlighting the "poor judgment and bad behavior" of a handful of American troops, said a defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said he did not believe the image was an innocent mistake and called on authorities to launch an investigation.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued a statement saying that "obviously" the military personnel had "no idea" what the image symbolized and called on U.S. military leaders to reinstate a Holocaust education program the league had helped develop 30 years ago.
"As the years pass, the memory of the ultimate sacrifices of American servicemen in World War II is being forgotten, and the symbols of the Nazis are losing their meaning to young people who have no memory and little knowledge of that time in history," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL's national director.

EJP