Inappropriate Parallels

Once of the upsides of driving over 1,000 miles a week on the campaign trail is the opportunity to listen to some good audiobooks that I haven't had a chance to read. I just finished James Bradley's Flags of our Fathers, the story of the five Marines and one Navy Corpsman immortalized in this famous photograph, including Rene Gagnon of Manchester:



I was slightly disappointed in the film version, but the book was a fascinating portrait of the battle, the men, and the legend that grew from one chance photograph.

Time Magazine has reinterpreted that photo, and drawn a parallel between the courage and sacrifice of the Marines on Iwo Jima and the current environmental movement:



Three of the men in this photograph died on Iwo Jima. Just as this photo served as a powerful symbol of the sacrifice of the thousands of Americans who fought and died retaking the Pacific from Imperial Japan, their deaths reflected the enormous casualties suffered by the Marines taking that island.

I don't see how Time Magazine decided it was appropriate to equate that sacrifice with the need to drive a hybrid.