Also, the website is blocked for me (occupymarines.org) but apparently there is a group of marines attempting to formally organize military solidarity and organizational support for the movement.
Son to be ex-Marines once the Department of Defence find out, I expect. I don't know if they're incredibly brave or incredibly foolhardy putting their jobs, pensions and VA benefits on the line like that.
Wouldn't firing them be political suicide?
You'd think so, but then, you'd think that the New York Police Department accepting massive donations all of a sudden would be political suicide, too.
That's not the same. You forget the (sometimes overly) privileged status soldiers have in American society, and Marines are sometimes given even higher praise for their skill and dedication which is seen by some as better than that of the other branches of the armed forces (I do not personally adhere to this second idea, however.). What the NYPD did was greedy, but greed isn't much of a sin to most Americans. Throwing out honorable members of the armed forces? That won't end well at all. In fact, if they did that, it might very well make a good deal of conservatives see Occupy in a much better light. If they're trying to slow Occupy down, getting their prime political opponents to see them as allies, or at least better than the current government, is the absolute last thing they would want.
Nothing would scare our current batch of mainstream politicians more than an Occupy-Tea Party Alliance, and throwing out pro-Occupy soldiers for exercising their constitutional rights could make that happen.
Ir's also worth noting that Sergeant Thomas also made what sounds like a very effective speech...to the police. Now, if the
police stop actively opposing (or worse yet,
join) Occupy, then our dear politicians are in quite a bit of trouble indeed. The police are the only thing curtailing Occupy right now.
Ultimately, I don't think the DoD would do something like that. Hell, I'm not even sure what they'd charge the Marines in question with. It's like the article says, they swore to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against enemies both foreign, and
domestic."(Emphasis mine). Technically, you could make an argument that they have a duty to support Occupy, since Occupy is exercising the rights enumerated by the Constitution.