Time Magazine is in hot water with some World War II veterans over its April 28 cover illustration, which addresses "How to Win The War On Global Warming."

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The magazine takes what is arguably one of the most famous war photographs of all time -- U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima's Mt. Suribachi -- and manipulates it to replace the flag and staff with a tree.

A Web site describing Time's story as pushing "more global warming alarmism" talked with retired Lt. John Keith Wells, who it said was the leader of the platoon captured in the Pulitzer prize-winning image by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.

"That global warming is the biggest joke I’ve ever known," Wells told the Business & Media Institute.

Donald Mates, also identified as an Iwo Jima veteran, told the publication, "It’s an absolute disgrace."

"Whoever did it is going to hell. That’s a mortal sin. God forbid he runs into a Marine that was an Iwo Jima survivor," he said.

"The Second World War we knew was there," Mates said. "There’s a big discussion. Some say there is global warming, some say there isn’t. And to stick a tree in place of a flag on the Iwo Jima picture is just sacrilegious."

The magazine credited the photo-illustration to Arthur Hochstein, "including an Iwo Jima photograph by Joe Rosenthal."

Time managing editor Richard Stengel said the package was "our third annual special issue on the environment but also a historic first: for this one issue, we've exchanged our trademarked Red Border for a green one. By doing so, we are sending a clear--and colorful--message to our readers about the importance of this subject, not just to Americans but to everyone else around the world as well."

In a letter to readers, he said, "Time Inc. is the industry leader in sustainable development, ... We have increased the percentage of our paper that comes from sustainably managed forests, from 25 percent to 69 percent. We have asked our paper companies to reduce CO2 emissions at least 20 percent by the year 2012. And we're co-sponsoring a campaign called Remix to promote the recycling of our magazines."