I wonder if such acts would become felonies if our militant flag-defenders had their way and got their constitutional amendment. Flying the flag upside-down, I mean. Death threats are okay, I guess.

While we’re on the subject of flags (again! what a loser I be), a bit of self-dialogue from that immortal Briton, Eddie Izzard:

We stole countries! That’s how you build an empire. We stole countries with the cunning use of flags. Sail halfway around the world, stick a flag in. “I claim India for Britain.”

And they’re going, “You can’t claim us. We live here! There’s five hundred million of us.”

“Do you have a flag?”

“We don’t need a flag, this is our country, you bastard!”

“No flag, no country—you can’t have one! That’s the rule that … I’ve just made up.”

A clip:

Click here to view the embedded video.

… but would this administration be smart enough to accept the invitation to depart?

This obviously assumes the US has the best interests of Iraqis at heart. There are several competing assumptions:

1. The Iraq invasion was actually an imperial venture. Thus the rationale for staying is the creation of ”forward bases,” protection of oil/Israel/etc., containment of Iran/Syria/etc., projection of US economic influence, and so on.
2. The Iraq invasion is actually part of a so-called global war on terrorism—which also happens to be an eternal war. According to Cheneythink, if we left Iraq, we’d just have to invade someplace else to keep fighting the GWOT “over there” rather than “here.”

Since I lean toward the first explanation, I don’t see the current administration leaving Iraq no matter what happens. After all, we found no WMDs—that didn’t make us pack up and leave, even though that was the stated reason for invading. Some poor fools are still trying to find evidence and, thereby, justification for the original dubious casus belli.

No, the boy king will indeed hand Iraq off to the next POTUS, whether or not the Iraqis ask us to leave.

Rumsfeld’s grand plan to transform the US military was at odds with the administration’s grand plans to transform the broader Middle East. Imperial projects don’t prosper with small armies that leave quickly: they require large armies that stay.

For the succinctness to work, one needs a rudimentary understanding of the “grand plans” alluded to. The review provides that, if it is lacking.