Bill's Comment Page

The toppling of Saddam’s statue and the REAL significance of the flags, US and Iraqi

I watched spellbound (see my articles further down this page) as a US marine contingent, watched by a cheering, happy Iraqi crowd, prepared to fell the tyrant’s symbol, and a few moments later the unleashing of the anger of the newly-liberated Iraqi upon the inanimate form of the fallen leader.

There has been much talk of the ‘gaffe’ of a US marine in wrapping Saddam’s face in the ‘Stars and bars’ of the US, comparing it with a brief interlude earlier in the war when a US flag was briefly raised. Something troubled me about this glib analysis when it happened, and now that I have had a chance to think about it overnight I believe there is a much better, and very plausible, explanation.

Whether consciously or unconsciously, I think that US marine, perhaps aided by some of his colleagues and some of the Iraqi and/or journalist onlookers, played out a very subtle and highly-symbolic ritual, directed mainly at the US home audience and partly (should he have been watching, which is doubtful) Saddam Hussein or any of his close supporters.

I am not an American, obviously, but one feature of the American psyche that shouts out is their love of their country, coupled with an enormous reverence for their national flag – because of what it represents for them. People who mess with this particular American symbol do so at their peril as the reaction may be delayed, but there will ALWAYS be one, usually very finely calculated. And so it was, I believe, yesterday.

For years, Americans have had to endure the desecration of their flag, seeing it being burned or walked upon by people who hate America. This has been particularly common in countries that were in one way or another the enemies of the US and its supporters, for example, Iraq and Iran, or countries such as Libya or North Korea. In Iraq, walking on the US flag had become a sort of ritual and there was I understand a mosaic of the 41st President, George Bush, who was president during the time of the previous Gulf conflict.

No, the US flag was not ‘displayed’ yesterday, by being hung and flying free, but instead it was wrapped around the model of Saddam’s face to symbolically ‘rub his face’ in the fact of his comprehensive defeat at the hands of his great[est] enemy.

Immediately this gesture had been achieved, the US flag was removed and the old Iraqi flag was put up, but hanging free, to symbolise for Iraqis the liberation of their country from the tyrant. Equally symbolically it had to be removed before the statue was toppled – it would hardly do for the Iraqi flag to be seen falling to the ground.

Whatever semantic gymnastics may be going on in much of the Arab world’s media, the truth is that most Iraqis, at home or abroad, are delighted to be [almost] rid of the Ba’ath Party and the thug Saddam Hussein. With US and British help, the nightmare will I hope soon be over – then the work of rebuilding their country can begin in earnest.