First of all, this post is not intended to offend anyone, and if it creates a discussion which spirals into ugliness, I urge the administrators to remove it immediately.

On a couple of occasions in the recent past, I have seen some posts where people have been offended by (for example) mislabeled model kits (in an advert) where US troopers were incorrectly labeled as "terrorists" and, in another case, the image of a modern Canadian soldier being used in an advert for German WW2 uniforms.

Yet, in a build log a while ago, it was a laughing matter when the modeler used the Takom "enemy combatant" figure in the Mexas kit, placed under the tracks of the Leopard, to display the flexibility of the model's movable suspension.

This, I would have thought should have been considered to be far more offensive than the other two cases, but because it was an enemy combatant (i.e. depicting a combatant belonging to a force opposing our own), I guess it was ok?

To put another angle on it: I know I am not directly associated with the men and women of the armed forces who are risking their lives every day in Iraq and Afghanistan (even though being half British and half Swedish it means that both the countries I hold close are well represented in these regions), but perhaps we should ask ourselves: would they really care about mislabeled model kits and adverts for WW2 German clothing, considering the dangers they face every day?

The examples above beg the question (at least from me): what is "ok" and what is offensive? Since this is a modeling forum, lets stick to how it relates to modeling as opposed to politics, religion etc.

Maybe we should try and shrug some things off like a British solder in Iraq did when asked by a reporter what he thought about the fact that a 100 USD bounty had been placed on the heads of British troops in Iraq.

His answer was: "I think its absolutely disgraceful, we are worth a heck of a lot more than 100 Dollars!".

That answer gives me the clear impression that these guys are pretty much able to stand up for themselves and aren't too bothered about "little things".

At the end of the day, perhaps it is just us being over sensitive thinking that we need to "stand up" for our brothers and sisters in uniform?