NEW YORK: For only the second time in its history, Time magazine has forsaken its familiar red border, replacing it with green. To illustrate its cover headline, How to Win the War on Global Warming, Time chose to use Joe Rosenthal’s legendary World War II photo of Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima.

 

But instead of a flag, those brave men are hoisting a tree, which didn’t set well with some Iwo Jima veterans.

“It’s an absolute disgrace,” Donald Mates, an Iwo Jima veteran 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.”

“Global warming may or may not be a significant threat to the United States,” said Tim Holbert, a spokesman for the American Veterans Centre. “The Japanese Empire in February of 1945, however, certainly was, and this photo trivialises the most recognisable moment of one of the bloodiest battles in US history. War analogies should be used sparingly by political advocates of all bents.”

Time managing editor Richard Stengel defended his magazine’s cover choice: “One 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. 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.”

Source : Agencies