# Why the red flags? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 14, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951 "2003-12-14T15:14:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![miatachris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@miatachris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miatachris)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951/1 "2003-12-14T15:14:49Z")
Why are Iraqis celebrating Saddam’s capture waving red, and in more than one case, _Soviet_ flags? I can clearly see the hammer and sickle on more than one flag. This seems very strange to me to raise the banner of an earlier failed country in celebration of Saddam’s capture. ---
**Author:** ![CheekyMonkey613](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e480ec/32.png) [@CheekyMonkey613](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheekyMonkey613)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951/2 "2003-12-14T15:32:56Z")
Here’s the best I could come up with: [Red Flag Flying Over Baghdad (July 14th, 2003)](http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33554) > [@](#): > > Intelligence analysts say the communists were, in the eyes of the Baath regime, a major threat because of their success in building an underground network, which from time to time stung the Hussein regime. A common description of the communists in the streets of Iraq, especially within the large Shiite community is: “They know how to hide their hammer and sickle under the ayatollah’s headdress.” In other words, communist activists who for years were forced to work in the underground can if necessary act as pious Shiites. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951/3 "2003-12-14T15:34:26Z")
Are you sure it’s the Hammer and Sickle and not the Crescent Moon symbol used by various Muslim groups? (The red color makes me think your report _is_ accurate, since I associate the crescent moon with green fields, not red, but I figured we ought to get that clarified, early on.) ---
**Author:** ![miatachris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@miatachris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miatachris)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951/4 "2003-12-14T15:39:27Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by tomndebb \* > **Are you sure it’s the Hammer and Sickle and not the Crescent Moon symbol used by various Muslim groups?** [_ Absolutely. The clearest pictures can be seen on MSNBC’s background footage. I at first thought I might be seeing the red crescent too, but check out MSNBC. ---
**Author:** ![miatachris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@miatachris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miatachris)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951/5 "2003-12-14T15:41:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CheekyMonkey613 \* > \*\*Here’s the best I could come up with: > [Red Flag Flying Over Baghdad (July 14th, 2003)](http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33554) \*\* What search terms did you use on Google to get that? “iraqi red flag” didn’t get me anything. ---
**Author:** ![CheekyMonkey613](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e480ec/32.png) [@CheekyMonkey613](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheekyMonkey613)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951/6 "2003-12-14T15:48:22Z")
I searched: red flag iraq ---
**Author:** ![gluteus\_maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f17d59/32.png) [@gluteus\_maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gluteus_maximus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951/7 "2003-12-14T15:57:44Z")
I’ve been watching on Japanese network TV, and there are big signs on the wall behind the flag wavers that say, quite legibly in English, **Iraqi Communist Party**. Who knew? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951/8 "2003-12-14T15:59:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > Are you sure it’s the Hammer and Sickle and not the Crescent Moon symbol used by various Muslim groups? It was the communists all right. Hammer and sickle, clear as day. Just like at last weeks anti-terrorism rally. ---
**Author:** ![miatachris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@miatachris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miatachris)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951/9 "2003-12-14T16:05:32Z")
That’s what I was beginning to conclude based on the repeated viewing of the footage - there’s two guys up there with portraits of people along with the guy with the large hammer-and-sickle flag - so I guess the message is - “Saddam’s gone so jump on the new(old?) train to Leningrad by voting for these guys”. I can see the sign, now, too. It’s very hard to catch (on CNN at least) and its just above the guys on the balcony. That’s freedom, though, isn’t it? They have every right to be communists now. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951/10 "2003-12-14T18:32:18Z")
[Photo](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/031214/481/bag10912141627) [Story](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/iraq_celebration_and_doubt) > [@](#): > > Members of the Iraqi Communist Party, which was banned and persecuted under Saddam’s rule, passed around bags of candy and waved red flags outside their party headquarters. ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951/11 "2003-12-14T20:39:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by miatachris \* > \*\*…_Soviet_ flags? I can clearly see the hammer and sickle on more than one flag. This seems very strange to me to raise the banner of an earlier failed country in celebration of Saddam’s capture. \*\* I would figure that Soviet flags (along with plain red ones) were more accessible than having to manufacture new ones with a uniquely Iraqi communist symbol. It’s got the necessary stuff: a hammer, a sickle, and nothing else but red. It just screams “Communist!” without making much other statement (except, of course, its history with the USSR), so it fits well enough for the purposes. You could probably equate it to American neo-Nazis using Germany’s swastika flag from during Hitler’s reign. Since the symbol represents the philosophy moreso than the failed government over which it once flew, it’s an easy way to get the point across. I’m sure these Iraqis know that even though the occupying Americans aren’t too fond of Communism, they’re not going to get shot for making displays of their political affiliation (unlike how it was under Baath rule). D ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951/12 "2003-12-14T22:11:03Z")
Here’s a post by an Iraqi blogger that links to his pictures of the protest against terrorism a few days ago that most media conveniently decided wasn’t worth covering: [http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/archives/2003\_12\_01\_healingiraq\_archive.html#107107940577248802](http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/archives/2003_12_01_healingiraq_archive.html#107107940577248802) Scroll down to the end of the post. Click on “first album”, then on the page that comes up click on “Iraqi Reds”. The picture shows very clearly the hammer and sickle on red flags. ---
**Author:** ![gluteus\_maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f17d59/32.png) [@gluteus\_maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gluteus_maximus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-red-flags/218951/13 "2003-12-15T15:59:04Z")
So, is [this guy](http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/57.jpg) some kind of Communist Iraqi David Blaine? Seriously, can Muslims belong to the Communist Party?