Iwo Jima Veterans Blast Time's 'Special Environmental Issue' Cover
Time editor tells MSNBC 'there needs to be a real effort along the
lines of World War II to combat global warming and climate change.'
By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
4/18/2008 9:40:43 AM
For only the second time in 85 years, Time magazine abandoned the
traditional red border it uses on its cover. The occasion - to push
more global warming alarmism.
The cover of the April 21 issue of Time took the famous Iwo Jima
photograph by Joe Rosenthal of the Marines raising the American flag
and replaced the flag with a tree. The cover story by Bryan Walsh
calls green "the new red, white and blue."
(a typical Generation X whippersnapper who doesn't know his ass from a
hole in the ground)
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."
According to the American Veterans Center (AVC), Mates served in the
3rd Marine Division and fought in the battle of Iwo Jima, landing on
Feb. 24, 1945.
"A few days later, Mates' eight-man patrol came under heavy assault
from Japanese forces," Tim Holbert, a spokesman for the AVC, said.
"During fierce-hand-to-hand combat, Mates watched as his friend and
fellow Marine, Jimmy Trimble, was killed in front of his eyes. Mates
was severely wounded, and underwent repeated operations for shrapnel
removal for over 30 years."
Lt. John Keith Wells, the leader of the platoon that raised the flags
on Mt. Suribachi and co-author of "Give Me Fifty Marines Not Afraid to
Die: Iwo Jima" wasn't impressed with Time's efforts.
"That global warming is the biggest joke I've ever known," Wells told
the Business & Media Institute. "[W]e'll stick a dadgum tree up
somebody's rear if they want that and think that's going to cure
something."
Time managing editor Richard Stengel appeared on MSNBC April 17 and
said the United States needed to make a major effort to fight climate
change, and that the cover's purpose was to liken global warming to
World War II.
"[O]ne of the things we do in the story is we say there needs to be
an effort along the lines of preparing for World War II to combat
global warming and climate change," Stengel said. "It seems to me that
this is an issue that is very popular with the voters,
makes a lot of sense to them and a candidate who can actually bundle
it up in some grand way and say, 'Look, we need a national and
international Manhattan Project to solve this problem and my candidacy
involves that.' I don't understand why they don't do that."
Holbert, speaking on behalf of the American Veterans Center, said the
editorial decision by Time to use the photograph for the cover
trivialized the cause the veterans fought for.
"Global warming may or may not be a significant threat to the United
States," Holbert said. "The Japanese Empire in February of 1945,
however, certainly was, and this photo trivializes the most
recognizable moment of one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. history.
War analogies should be used sparingly by political advocates of all
bents."
Stengel also appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on April 17 and had no
difficulty admitting the magazine needed to have a "point of view."
"I think since I've been back at the magazine, I have felt that
one of the things that's needed in journalism is that you have to have
a point of view about things," Stengel said. "You can't always just
say 'on the one hand, on the other' and you decide. People trust us to
make decisions. We're experts in what we do. So I thought, you know
what, if we really feel strongly about something let's just say so."
[This is "an expert" when it comes to the
environment? Hah! What scientific credentials does he posses that
allow him to judge the scientific merits of the "global warming and
climate change" hyperbole?]
Time has been banging the global warming drum for some time now. In
April 2007, Time offered 51 ways to "save the planet," which included
more taxes and regulation.
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