If You Are Ashamed to Stand By Your Colors . . .

For a nation in civil war, the pissing match between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Massoud Barzani over a decision by the Kurds to fly their own flag and not the Iraqi national flag seems pretty silly, but it packs considerable gravitas.

Iraqi Kurds in semi-autonomous Kurdistan northern part of the country lowered Iraqi flags this past weekend, replacing them with Kurdish banners (see image) over official government buildings. This elicited howls in Baghdad, where Al-Maliki called the move "illegal."

Addressing Kurdistan's parliament, President Massoud Barzani, said the Iraqi flag was a symbol of his own people's past oppression and threatened to secede.

Omar, blogging from Baghdad at Iraq the Model, writes:

The behavior of both leaders is unacceptable and even dangerous as it sends a wrong message at a time when the government is supposedly trying to persuade groups and parties to join the reconciliation plan. Now if the "reasonable, responsible and moderate" leaders are acting like this, how can we expect violent and undisciplined groups to believe in the national cause?

. . . Build the country first and then you can have all the quarrels you want, but secure and build the country first.