What's in a flag? Apparently, a lot. I suppose the accoutrement of any new autonomous (?) state is a national symbol that the people can be proud of. Instead, the unveiling of the interim flag of Iraq visibly highlights some of the country's most pressing concerns.
Most striking is the decision to retain "Allah Akbar" as the centerpiece of the flag, in a script different from Saddam Hussein's supposedly original handwriting. This is not a problem at first glance--the majority of Iraq's population is Muslim and the flag should represent fundamental commonalities shared by the citizens that live under it. The intention to show that the various sects within the country share common bonds of unity, however, is completely overshadowed by tangible and horrifying sectarian conflict. The flag is a fantastic gesture, but ending conflicts might take more than just a piece of cloth--however, it is be a great start.
Many Iraqis are enraged by the change. Citing that the old flag was not a symbol of Saddam at all, score of protesting Iraqis throughout the country insist that it was one that thousands of citizen soldiers died for in patriotic wars. Municipalities have already pledged not to fly the new flag as citizens attach the old flag to their cars and houses. This protest, however, reminds me of the persistence of many states in the American south that continue to take pride in use of the Confederate flag. Just as the Confederate flag unquestionably represents a past marred by slave holding and racism by consensus, so does Saddam's handwritten script represent his once paternal dominance as does the three stars of the Ba'ath tripartite slogan "Unity, Freedom, and Socialism" remind the world (and the Iraqi people) of the hypocrisy behind the thinly veiled one party authoritarian rule.
Furthermore, Kurdish members of parliament (MP, MP's, MsP, M'sP... dear me) who pushed the initiative to change the flag are upset that the color yellow, representing the Kurdish population, was not added. Even on the simple but crucial level of palette choice, the flag fails to represent a sizable portion of the population who called for its ratification in the first place.
There is no doubt that creating a new flag is an important symbolic step. However, the new Iraqi flag is as tenuous and insecure as the nation it represents. It should prove extremely difficult to find a new national symbol that can sum up the values of the new nation whilst pleasing everyone.
On the purely aesthetic side...
Courtesy of a link through Tyler Cowen's Blog, I checked to see how the new flag fared on one completely unscientific ranking of world flags. It hasn't been updated yet, but I think through a purely artistic lens, losing the stars might place the new flag somewhere between Equatorial Guinea and Rwanda.
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