A Faceful of Stars And Stripes
Yesterday Marine Cpl. Edward Chin of Brooklyn presided over
one of those moments that instantly sears itself into history.
It was a fitting gesture. There's something deeply satisfying about a New Yorker in downtown Baghdad draping the American flag over the statue of a major 9-11 culprit.
After a short time Cpl. Chin removed Old Glory and replaced it with an Iraqi flag. Subsequently, there was much handwringing in the press that displaying the American flag in such a manner would be seen by the world as the mark of a conqueror rather than a liberator. Heaven forfend! Evidently it escaped the handwringers' notice, so let's spell it out: the United States
did conquer Iraq and, in so doing, liberated Iraq. That's a message the rest of the world would do well to understand.
James Lileks, as usual, puts the matter perfectly:
You hope Saddam’s alive to see this, to see the hailstorm of footwear, the burly men taking sledgehammers to his statue’s polished podium, to see the American flag draped over his cruel empty mug. That last point was one of the more remarkable moments today - the soldier put the flag over Saddam’s iron face, then removed it and replaced it with the old Iraqi flag. It’s a potent message. A show of power, then a show of respect. Our flag first; your flag for ever after. Don’t forget how the latter was made possible by the former.
