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July 31, 2005
The Missing Flags in Londonistan
I was in London a few days after the July 7 bombings and witnessed the moving two-minutes of silence in Central London. Yet something nagged at me, something was missing, was off. There were no flags. Sure, the Union Jack was on display near Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square for the commemoration of the allied victory in World War II. But those flags quickly came down. After the terror bombings, there were no displays of flags to symbolize national unity in the face of terror. Even the unity demonstration following the 7-7 bombings, which featured fine speeches from Muslim leaders, included no British flags. (Contrast this with 9-11, when Americans hung flags and signs depicting flags have available surface. Many even bought plastic little flags to attach to their cars.)
I asked a number of British journalists, a Member of Parliament and other longtime London residents about the missing flags. Some missed the point, contending that Brits were not "jingoistic"—"We don't want anyone to think that we are going to war." (Aren't you already at war? Nevermind.) Others patiently reminded me that patriotism is a bad word in Britain. "Why do Americans always call the U.K. Great Britain? What's great about it?" one asked. Even in soccer matches, English fans hold up the white-and-red flag of St. George, not the Union Jack. I can't help but thinking that this aversion to patriotism is part of the problem; it is a concession to those who think that arresting terror suspects is "racist" and "anti-Muslim" and those activists who chant "There ain't no black in the Union Jack." (Quick, name a country whose flag was designed before 1945 that includes the color black. I can think only of Nazi Germany... The choice of flag colors tells us nothing about a country's virtue. But, tellingly, legions of Britons let this cheap shot stand.) Or as the great French anti-communist intellectual, Jean-Francois Revel observes: "Democratic civilization is the first in history to blame itself because another power is trying to destroy it."
Prime Minister Blair missed an important opportunity when he spoke to his nation following the attacks. He could have called on his citizens to hang flags in solidarity with the 55 victims of terror. But he did not, probably knowing the negative reaction he would have experienced. And that says it all.
Posted by Richard Miniter at July 31, 2005 03:32 PM