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Careers shouldn't end over this act of poor judgment. However, some pee-pees should be slapped. The unit should be told that they have to get rid of all Nazi-inspired regalia. Ideally, the Corps will release a public statement by the unit leadership to the effect that they never intended for the American public or the people of the world to assume that they or any part of the USMC incorporates any of the values of Nazi Germany. Then we can move on.

As to the recruiting woes, I agree that we're faced with a real cultural problem. By bringing some of our society's undesirables into the fold for a single enlistment, we create problems for civil society down the road. Training with guns, and all that.

While I'm not willing to take on any of the baggage of the whistle-blower, I will say that association with the Holocaust is damning. Willing, I'll try to put the problem in personal terms in the hopes that you will understand why this particular act of free expression is such a problem for so many. The Nazis were hard-core racists. Racism was built into the ideology. My wife, being black and Asian, is about as far from the Nazi ideal as possible. American Neo-Nazis today, using the same scheme of symbols as the Marines in the photo, proudly proclaim their willingness to follow in the footsteps of the SS and murder their fellow Americans for being black, Asian, Hispanic, First Tribes, Arabic, or whatever. By Nazi standards, my children are mongrels. The Nazis would very happily throw my wife and children into the ovens. By their own admission, so would current American Neo-Nazis. I'm a blood traitor, so I'd get similar treatment. Now the USMC, which is supposed to be champion of the Constitution and the American way of life, appears to be tolerant of a nest of Neo-Nazis in its ranks. Do you see the problem? This isn't a matter of a white guy using the n-word in public. This is a question of values. What exactly do these Marines stand for? If the Corps doesn't deal with the problem expediently, then tens of millions of non-white and mixed-race Americans are obliged to ask whether it's their USMC or just the USMC of the Aryan-Americans and whoever among the white population they deem worthy of having a future.