The Marine Corps' commandant has decided he won't discipline the men who posed before a banner displaying the insignia of Hitler's Schutzstaffel."The Marines in the photo were ignorant of the connection of this symbol to the Holocaust and monumental atrocities associated with Nazi Germany," General James Amos announced in a written statement.
Spokesmarine Major Gabrielle Chapin told the Associated Press the boys thought the symbol stood for "Sniper Scouts."
"I don't believe that the Marines involved would have ever used any type of symbol associated the Nazi Germany military criminal organization," she said.
Wisely, the Corp will use the incident as a "teachable moment."
It's a shame more teachable moments don't take place in fifth grade.
Novelist Gustave Flaubert once wrote, "Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times."
