Just last week we were all expected to blindly accept the excuse from Marine officials that the use of the identical logo from Hitler’s Waffen SS wing by a Marine Corps 1st Recon Battalion – which goes something like this - “We didn’t know it what it stood for”, and that any similarities are mere coincidence.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation immediately joined forces with other organizations and spoke out against the use of the Waffen SS flag. Our efforts brought on a backlash of vitriolic emails from their supporters stateside, writing to defend the claims of ignorance to the Nazi symbolism – and that they just happened to create an identical logo that overlays the Waffen SS flag precisely. They have claimed their symbolisim is innocuous and that the ‘SS’ in their case innocently represent “Sniper Scouts”. Riiiiggghhht….
The protests of the use of this symbolism resulted in a significant win for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation‘s efforts to protect our men and women in the armed forces from the dangers posed by religious extremists within our own military. Anti-semitism and American exceptionalism dogma turns back international diplomatic achievments that have cost thousands of lives just in the last decade. These extreme ideologies compromise the safety of our militry in the field by exacerbating tensions and fueling notions that Americans are superior.
“Although the term does not necessarily imply superiority, many neoconservative and American conservative writers have promoted its use in that sense.[1][5] To them, the United States is like the biblical “shining city on a hill,” and exempt from historical forces that have affected other countries”. ~ Wikipedia
This rhetoric is reinforced by some of the conservative political candidates who pine for the opportunity to spark more conflict in the Middle East which we have recently heard from GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum and others. Look no further than here for an entire library of videos that Newt Gingrich and his 3rd wife have produced under Gingrich Productions. They also happily partner together with Citizens United Productions, providing a depiction of revisionist history that rivals the fiction of David Barton.
Herein lies a problem with all of this propaganda – too many self-identified Christian patriot conservatives are lapping up this misinformation and are taking it onto our battle grounds. Just watch this two and a half minute trailer that stokes the fires of paranoia and distrust of all of Islam. The references to the End of Days. Their message is the promotion of a Holy War.
Well here we go again. Today we have been informed about a U.S. Army camp in Afghanistan called Camp Aryan.
How are they going to spin this into an innocent use of “Aryan”?
We will have to wait and see, I am certain it will be about as convincing as the “I didn’t know that was a Nazi Waffen SS logo” argument.
Full disclosure – I am honored to be an Exuctive Board member of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and support the freedoms for our men and women in the armed forces against wreckless and dangerous bigotry – while they are fighting for our freedoms here at home.
The military states it was a misspelling of “Arian” in the linked article below. I guess No Child Left Behind is the culprit.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-02-14/aryan-afghanistan-military/53089468/1
The link provided to “U.S. Army camp in Afghanistan called Camp Aryan” goes to an “Error 404 – Not Found” page. I do not see how an argument can be made *against* something, if there is no proof that that “something” even exists in the first place!
Although the letter from the lawyers says “Please see the attached photograph which was also forwarded to the Foundation,” there is no photograph. …unless the photo shown above of men standing between buildings and identified as “Staff Sergeant Tanner with C Company speaks with an Afghan National Army officer at Combat Outpost Aryan” is what is supposed to be taken as that “proof.”
Sorry — nowhere in the above photo do I see *anything* identifying it as being taken at any specific location, much less at any *US* Combat Outpost named “Aryan”. Am I missing something, or should I, too, just let truthiness wash over me like the warm ocean? beth.
PS — I think “God’s Own Party?” does itself a *great* disservice by posting unsubstantiated ‘facts’ (as found in the above article about “US FOB Aryan”)…it makes the real, honest, much-appreciated, verifyable Facts normally and routinely shared by GoP? look bad. And calls *them* into question. b.
Thank you for bringing to my attention that the U.S. Army has scrubbed that link to their newsletter. I will grab the archive and repost it. They clearly felt the pressure from the pushback about the naming of a U.S. military camp “Aryan”. This is no surprise to those of us who follow, monitor and expose these extremists. Once you out them, they tend to run and hide very quickly.
Clearly you missed the links to MRFF and since I wrote this post, if you Google this topic you will find a plethora of info that substantially backs up my post.
Appreciate your interest…
The marines served in the Pacific Theater…only few served in the European Theater…still they would be well aware of the Nazi SS symbols. Most US bases, that I am aware of have shops off base that sell lots of this stuff…seems to pump the boys up. It is no wonder support for fascism rears it head in the military…just do a bit of research on the Dulles & Bush families, Ford, Standard Oil…etc…see the support for Nazis.
They do indeed…as does the U.S. Army in allowing a camp to be named “Camp Aryan”. There is absolutely no convincing us that these were innocent choices that have no deeper and hideous meanings. Now we await the response and proper actions by the Pentagon and military leaders.
No branch of the American military is more aware of its history, and the history of war, than the United States Marine Corps. They know damn well what those runes mean.