Well as a Jew, and someone who's known Marines..
1. This is not just a failure of individual common sense on the part of these Marines (and yes, it was), but a failure of a SNCO with more sense than them to grab the ringleader of this Charlie-Fox and give him a wall to wall counseling session (or whatever Marines call it).
2. What makes it worse is they juxtapose the flag with it. The same flag my grandfather bled for, He and his buddies killed plenty of folks wearing those runes on the collar. (and were killed by them) That's war, that part I get, Considering unofficial division policy was to drive any captured SS halfway back to the rear, then let them get out and run, and shoot them for "attempted escape". This was after Luneville when SS snipers had a nasty tendency to use the red cross on the helmets of division medics as an aiming point....Sorry, I don't weep for them at all. I won't talk about what happened when they liberated Ohurduf-Nord.
3. The Marines have a warrior ethos to uphold, and while the SS did fight well, it's actions off the battlefield (and yes, even the Waffen-SS wasn't immune) dishonor that ten times over at least. The Marine Corps shouldn't even want to be in the same league with that.
4. As a wargamer, I get the "celebrating elite units" bit...but there's plenty of folks in the USMC who have something to emulate; Carlos Hathcock for one? Glad HE isn't alive to see this...
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