By Staff
Veterans have turned their fire on Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner for turning back 200 Marine Corps reservists who planned a weekend of downtown training.
City Council members sent apologies. The local visitors bureau offered the unit a free hotel stay, restaurant gift certificates and a visit to the Ohio city's renowned zoo because they had to cancel the exercise and return home.
Maybe we're missing something, but why do Michigan Marines need to take over Toledo for such training?
Why can't they train in the city where they're based, Grand Rapids?
Certainly this incident could have been handled better.
The mayor said he didn't know Toledo's police department approved the latest urban warfare training until hours before the Marines' arrival – even though police distributed a news release to the media three days before.
Yet no one alerted business owners or downtown residents, which, the mayor is right, could make for a dangerous situation.
Again, we're not sure what makes Toledo so desirable for urban warfare training that they've trained in this city four times since 2004 in between two deployments to Iraq.
But a similar training exercise two years ago caught people off guard when camouflaged soldiers dashed down sidewalks, crouched behind buildings and aimed weapons.
Even though the Marines fire blank ammunition while simulating firefights and ambushes, it can be disconcerting to panicked visitors or the uninformed who assume the city is under siege.
Bloggers and talk radio hosts are impugning Finkbeiner's patriotism.
Finkbeiner was elected mayor of Ohio's fourth-largest state in 1994.
The media have had a field day pointing out that Toledo's most famous soldier, Cpl. Max Klinger, was played by native Jamie Farr on television's "M*A*S*H."
We agree with a former Marine, City Councilman D. Michael Collins, that Finkbeiner meant no disrespect.
The city's image should not be tarnished, nor should unappeased veterans be vowing to never set foot in Toledo again.