Flag waving by the ‘liberation’ forces
There has been a lot of rhetoric from the leaders of the Coalition of the Willing regarding the purpose of the invasion of Iraq, but there has been a discernible change of emphasis over the course of the last four weeks.
To begin with it was all about dispossessing Saddam Hussein of his weapons of mass destruction. More recently, the main objective has been to free the Iraqi people from the evil dictatorship. Apparently, this means helping pull down statues of Saddam and hoisting the stars and stripes at opportune moments. There is no question that Saddam’s narcissistic tendencies did a lot for the statue industry in Iraq, but wouldn’t it be more symbolic of liberation if the Iraqis pulled the statues down themselves? As for the flag waving by US forces, for many this will convey conquest rather than liberation and it is the kind of imagery that is unlikely to be well received in the Arab world.
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