Use of the Flag in Iraq

[Timber Loftis]

MagiK posted this at the Oasis, and I wanted to post it here. I do not know the validity or the source, but it has names attached to it, and they've asked that it be circulated. Take it for what you will.
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I would just like to pass on to all concerned. Today, here at KIRKUK AB, Iraq, we were told that we were no longer allowed to fly the United States flag. The reason we were given is so we would not offend the Iraqi people. We were told that we are not occupying this country! And apparently we are not in charge. Well, my question is this. If we are not in charge, then who is? Obviously, the Iraqi people are not. The Iraqi people do not run any of these bases over here yet, and may not for quite some time. We at KIRKUK AB, Fire Dept have up to today, both Post and Retire the colors every day. Today in a show of respect and honor especially for those who have fallen, we disobeyed the order and raised our flag, but less than an hour later we were Ordered to take our flag down. The moral here is low, but our mission remains in focus. It is a slap in the face of those families back home who have lost a loved ones. It is also a slap in the face for those who still remain here, not only protecting our people back home, but trying to make a difference here in the pursuit of freedom for the Iraqi people. I would appreciate the widest dissemination of this message. If we are to fly the Iraqi flag with our flag then so be it. But don't tell us that cant show the respect for our flag, when so many have died in the name of Freedom. The only people I think who would be offended, are the people who kill innocent women and children in the name of religion. Thank you for your support and prayers.
Samuel D. Arbuckle, TSgt, USAFR
506 ECES/CEF
FREEDOM AB
KIRKUK, IRAQ
DSN(phone number deleted by TL)

Subject: RE: Flying of US Flag
All outside US flags need to come down per CENTAF guidance. Col Gibson is taking this back to CENTAF. Inside flags are good, We are allowed to put the flag up for special days or events, but we can't have it up all the time implying that we are occupying Iraq. Chief T
Sir, When we carry the bodies of our fallen men and women to the aircraft for their final flight home, can we still drape the coffins with our flag, or will that still offend the people that we are dying for so they can be liberated.
MSgt, W. Dalton

[ 05-20-2004, 10:28 AM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[Skunk]

Originally quoted by Timber Loftis: Sir, When we carry the bodies of our fallen men and women to the aircraft for their final flight home, can we still drape the coffins with our flag, or will that still offend the people that we are dying for so they can be liberated. MSgt, W. Dalton

I believe that this is allowed - so long as no-one photographs it with the intention of honouring the fallen when they return home.

[uss]

Wow man. This is really weird for me. It's just that.. The Americans' respect to the flag is something an Estonian cannot understand.

Don't get me wrong, there are many patriots (and chauvinists?) in Estonia. But they are such in their hearts, and expressing one's love for his country in public is done very rarely, including waving the flag around.

[Stratos]

You're not even allowed flags on army bases?

[Skunk]

I don't think that the author is looking at the big picture. If the flag is seen as the equivilent of sticking two fingers up to the local populace and invites resentment and attacks, then removing it to save the lives of US/UK troops is a small price to pay.

[Felix The Assassin]

Public relations keeps U.S. flag from flying in Iraq
The Intelligencer


Gerry White was hopping mad when he called last week. The Warminster resident was upset to learn that U.S. troops serving in Iraq are not permitted to display the American flag.

He considers the practice a "slap in the face" to all Americans.

Like it or not, the no-flag policy has been in effect since the war began a year ago. At the war's outset, coalition headquarters in Kuwait ordered soldiers, airmen and Marines not to display the American flag on vehicles or buildings. It was reported that the order was only loosely followed.

Then in April, the world saw the dramatic images of jubilant Iraqis in Baghdad tearing down a huge statue of Saddam Hussein. The crowd was having trouble toppling the statue of the former dictator, so some U.S. Marines in an armored tank recovery vehicle helped out.

The Marines tied the statue to their heavy vehicle, but before they tore it down, Marine Cpl. Edward Chin of New York draped the Stars and Stripes over the statue's face. Within a minute, the flag was replaced with an Iraqi flag.

The scene, broadcast all around the world, proved to be something of an embarrassment to U.S. military leaders and policy makers. It's important, they said, that Iraqis and the rest of the Arab world see U.S. forces in Iraq as "liberators" and not "conquerors."

So, another, more forceful, order on showing the flag was issued to U.S. troops, and since then the only place the American flag is displayed in Iraq is at the U.S. Embassy.

Never underestimate the role of public relations in the conduct of modern warfare.

Along those lines, here's another issue connected to the war and how it's portrayed to the public.
Not long ago, I received a correspondence from a reader who complained about the news media's conspicuous lack of coverage of the solemn ceremonies that take place when the bodies of the nation's war dead are returned to the United States.

He suggested this was more evidence of the "liberal media's" distortion of the "real story" of Operation Iraqi Freedom and an insult to the sacrifices of the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their nation.


In reality, the reason you've seen no images of flag-draped coffins accompanied by uniformed honor guards and prayed over by military chaplains is because the news media isn't permitted to cover the ceremonies.

The large military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, to which most of the war dead are flown, has been off-limits to the press when bodies are returned since 1991. Last March the Pentagon extended the ban to all military installations around the world.

The ceremonies are conducted in private, the Pentagon says, out of sensitivity to the grief of the deceased's loved ones.

Others, however, have noted that keeping images of flag-draped coffins out of the public's eye during wartime can have certain advantages for any government engaged in a conflict. Numbers are merely numbers, but such images of death and its finality tend to remind people of the real human cost of war and could turn their feelings against it.

During the Vietnam War, images of America's dead returning to Dover and elsewhere were regular fare on the TV nightly news. It gave rise to the term "Dover test," an informal gauge of the public's tolerance of the mounting body count. Eventually, after 10 years and 58,000 dead, the Vietnam War failed to pass the "Dover test."

But for Iraq, there's no such thing as a "Dover test." For whatever reason you choose to believe, it's absent from our view. Just don't blame the press for that absence.


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I guess the next step is we will have to remove the flag patch from our right sleeves.

[Khazadman Risen]

Yeah, God knows the press would love nothing more than to stab the country in the back. Most of them have been trying to subvert the war effort since the war started. Hell, even before that.

[Davros]

Seems to me that the public statements back at the very start of the war were that we will not come in flying our flags cos we are liberators and not occupiers. I remember lots of posts back then about people not being allowed to fly the flag and about having them taken down when it went against that order. So nothing has really changed since then, so why all the fuss.

Some people it seems are capable of accepting orders as orders and some people have trouble doing that. If you look at the issue as being all about the flag and only about the flag then you will get a lot of people caught up in emotion, but I look at the problem as a failure to obey orders. By writing this letter and trying to sway public perceptions these people are bypassing the chain of command. I think disciplinary action is in order.

[Davros]

Just so's you know that last post in no way knocks the guy's patriotism - just his sense of perspective. I ask you which would you like to be in a foxhole with a patriotic man who don't follow orders.

If you are Gunnery Seargant Rifle Company B, you want your new Lootenant to follow the order "Hold your position - we will have relief to you in 6 hours and then we will resume the advance" as opposed to him tellin his troops to "Fix bayonets, those idiots in command are a bunch of wusses, we are gunna take this goddamn hill".

That might be different if it were comin from an ole headed Lootenant that you had been through hell with though rather than some greenhorn .

Boil it down - most army's anywhere attract patriotic people - you can't suggest that German's and Japanese in WWII were not patriotic and loved seeing their flags everywhere. What the army must do is try to make them value the need to follow orders above their patriotism. That is why I think the letter writer should be disciplined - not for loving his flag and his country, but by placing them above the need to obey orders.

[shamrock_uk]

Well, I don't quite get the flag thing either, although I wish it was something we did more over here. The British aren't patriotic enough, I think there's a balance.

As for the orders they seem very sensible to me. The stars and stripes are a symbol for everything America stands for so it's a probably not a good idea to fly it everywhere (bearing in mind that the rest of the world sees a very different America to its citizens).

Still, I don't see a problem with flying both side to side particularly, or even the US flag on its own providing it's in a US base.