I understand the comments of most above that this is much ado about nothing. I myself am not at all impressed by the self professed outrage of the media toward every slight, large or small, real or imagined toward our enemies. Perhaps I would give them more credence if they show the same outrage towards the atrocities and obscenities committed by the enemy; you know, legit outrages such as torture and beheadings, using women and children as shields, and so on.

That being said, the above detailed stunts and others that have happened over the course of this war, while sophomoric, are harmful to our cause and to how our troops are perceived,in particular our troops in battle who will be affected most by such actions.

As a former Marine,such actions are beneath the dignity of our armed forces, and can give a dangerous impression to our enemies. As an example, one time when I was on deployment, while our group was on board ship in the Pacific, we were visited by a couple of Soviet Bear bombers. While taking great care not to approach us in any hostile or provocative way, they came low and close enough to take pictures of us. One Bear flew parallel to our deck. We could see the crew, and in the bubble in the tail of the plane, we saw the Soviet tailgunner give us a thumbs up as they flew by. One of our youngest guys, on his first float, responded by mooning them. After the Soviets left, I and a few other NCOs drug the youngster inside and beat the hell out of him. He professed with much confusion that he did not understand what we were so mad about. The point we made to him was the same point here. You embarrassed and degraded us in front of the enemy . I have no doubt that the crew of that bomber came away from that encounter with a lower opinion of the US Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy, and that the story spread throughout their ranks.

Let the enemy fear us for our ferocity and fighting ability, not for our grade school stupidity.

tomk59 on January 3, 2007 at 6:30 PM