Marines bring home statuesque souvenir

BBC ^

[alnitak]

I was just about to post this!

Here's the pic

The statue has been put up in the officers' mess at Norton Fitzwarren

[EggsAckley]

Hmmmm.....two tons of brass could be quite valuable when melted down. Not sure I approve of this.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

I guess an enlisted man bringing home a bayonet get's him non-judicial punishment if not more but the O club can bring home a tonnage and put it up for display and they get no punishment.

That's about typical. No use whining about it because it's just life in it's normal setting.

I wonder what the I.G. would say about this? hmmm. Any freepers in that area feel like driving over and signing on the dotted line?

[Publius]

Ship it to the Fremont Chamber of Commerce in Seattle. They bought a huge statue of Lenin when the Soviet Union had its going-out-of-business sale and posted it at a three-way street corner as a conversion piece.

Lenin and Saddam would make a fine matching pair.

[Calpernia]

This is a double edged sword. I'm afraid the Arab Community will see this a looting.

I don't think the Arabs will understand the 'symbolism' that the military saw. We know our military can care less for the financial value. This was more seen as an earned mascott (?), (not sure if mascott is the word I want).

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Ha. That's a great idea. Maybe we should call Bill and Melinda's people to ask for money to buy up one of these statues?

[dfc62]

A quick google suggests 2 tons of brass would be worth around 800-1000 pounds(1300-1700 dollars), so it's not too valuable.

Apparently they're thinking of using it as a signpost to the tennis courts.

[alnitak]

London Metal Exchange says copper is $1,711.50 per metric ton (zinc is only $804.00).

[EggsAckley]

posted it at a three-way street corner as a conversion piece

Conversion piece? As in "conversion to communism?" Just teasing you. ~</;o)

[wimpycat]

That's the very thing my parlor is lacking!

[Publius]

Oh merde!

I meant "conversation piece".

[Colofornian]

I'm afraid the Arab Community will see this a looting.

Okay. I guess I'm dense. How is this different from the FOX technical guy being brought up on charges of stealing art & trying to bring it here? Both are objects of art, right? Both belong to the Iraqi people, right? And, if it's true, that one man's trash is another man's treasure, then even this trashed piece of an icon of trash embodied is still art, right?

[EggsAckley]

But in Iraq that's quite a bit of money. Of course, the idiots would probably melt it down to make bullets.

[Publius]

Only in certain parts of New York and Berkeley would that statue be considered art.

[dfc62]

maybe, but theres probably a glut of large brass statues on the Baghdad scrap metal market at the moment, so the prices there will be a lot lower

[Calpernia]

'Technically', I don't think it is that different than the Fox Technical Guy.

But, I can see separate perspectives. The soldiers spilled their blood there. This is more symbolic to them, not a financial gain.

[alnitak]

LOL! I hear there's a surplus of wood-chippers too.

[lawdude]

Looting. Just plain looting!

[tiamat]

EggsAckley wrote:

Hmmmm.....two tons of brass could be quite valuable when melted down. Not sure I approve of this.

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hey! it's fair!! specially when you think of all the brass casings that we and the Brits left in exchange!

Tia