Friday, September 24, 2004
Completely forgotten after five months: Remember when a new Iraq flag was announced in late April? Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council has approved a new national flag for the embattled country, officials said.
The design consists of a pale blue crescent on a white background, with a yellow strip between two blue lines at the bottom.  But that's not what was on display during Allawi's visit to the White House yesterday.  It's the old one:  That's why we are having trouble in Iraq. They're still using the old flag! No wonder the insurgents are on a roll. Tell Condi Rice and the braniacs in the Pentagon - there's not a moment to waste on this critical issue.
posted by Quiddity at 9/24/2004 07:56:00 AM
7 comments
And did you notice that they didn’t even get rid of Saddam’s handwriting on the flag, either?
Actually, they did. Origainally, the writing was in Saddam's hand, but it has been changed to a stylized Arabic text.
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Flag_of_Iraq
At the "transfer of sovereignty" the "new" flag was also absent. It has actually never been used since it offended almost everyone who saw it. The entire flag design exercise was a huge farce.
Yes, they got rid of his handwriting but it was Saddam who first put the takbir (that's the formula Allahu Akbar=God is greater) on the Iraqi flag. That's Saddamist flag, no doubt.
-Barry Freed
Read the damn MEMO, folks!
The new Iraqi flag is being used daily by the manned Mars expedition, most recently to claim the Tartarus Montes in the name of Democratic And Totally 100% Sovereign Except For A Few Small Details Iraq.
So read, and get WITH it. NOW.
-- Karl
You know, even though I sense a bit of irony, this post gave me a dumb idea. Why not have a form of nationwide Iraqi Idol (yes, I know this has been done over there already with entertainers), but make it all about the flag. Have a bunch of people, say 50 people from all over Iraq, design a flag, then let them decide which to adopt. In a way, it might prime the pump to get people thinking about national elections, and maybe demonstrate that even deciding on something as mundane as a flag is possible. Then again, maybe it's not.
Whatever the case, the flag won't matter if things spiral more out of control, but an oddball post-modern western influenced Iraqi Flag Idol might distract enough people to get them to stop killing each other for awhile. On second thought, never mind...it's too simple to work.
I read a comment a few weeks back that among the Kurds at least, the use of the old flag is in fact a major point of complaint. So for some, it really does matter.
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Geoduck
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