Time Magazine Pisses Off WW2 Vets with an Iwo Jima Inspired Global Warming Cover: Should We Care?

I have all the respect in the world for the men who fought on our side in WW2. My grandfather was on a Navy ship in the Pacific and I’ve read about and seen enough good WW2 movies to know that it was an hellish, epic battle fought by brave men who saved the world from some pretty terrible dictators.

Iwo Jima was a particularly bad fight and our win there did a lot to boost this nation’s morale at a time when it was in danger of dipping low. Again, the men who fought there were brave heroes whom I have only the greatest respect for.

So it’s with that prefaced that I say: who cares if there are some Iwo Jima veterans upset about Time Magazines recent riff off the famous (and staged) Iwo Jima photo? Business and Media has it:

Donald Mates, an Iwo Jima veteran, told the Business & Media Institute on April 17 that using that photograph for that cause was a “disgrace.”

“It’s an absolute disgrace,” Mates said. “Whoever did it is going to hell. That’s a mortal sin. God forbid he runs into a Marine that was an Iwo Jima survivor.”

Mates also said making the comparison of World War II to global warming was erroneous and disrespectful.

“The second world war we knew was there,” Mates said. “There’s a big discussion. Some say there is global warming, some say there isn’t. And to stick a tree in place of a flag on the Iwo Jima picture is just sacrilegious.”

All apologies to Mr. Mates, but Global Warming is a fact. It’s here, it’s big, dangerous, and it could make life pretty damn miserable for everyone on the planet if we don’t stop it. I won’t try to compare the specific dangers of Global Warming to those faced by the free world during WW2, but to try to claim that Global Warming “isn’t there” is ludicrous. Then again, what can you expect from someone who is probably an 90+ year old retired insurance salesman living in East Texas who has voted Republican all his life. Much respect for his service in The Big War, but at the same time, come on…

Link [Business and Media] & [Time Magazine]