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Sat. Aug 30, 2003

Georgia Flag Flap Stirs Dust in Iraq

Georgia Flag Flap Stirs Dust in Iraq – As I’ve talked around and about lately, when you approach the fringes, things can get weird. Whether it is the fringe of the right, left, top, or bottom, there ought to be a sign as you approach: “Beware: Beyond Here Be Conspiracies.” This is one of those stories.

Capt. Ken Hutnick “is the manager of a mortgage loan office in Alpharetta. He gave up his family and his job—temporarily, he hopes—to do intelligence reconnaissance work for his country. He’s been gone since March.”

Capt. Hutnick asked his sister to send him one of the new state flags, a design resulting from a heated debate that is due for a vote next March. Soon after he got the flag, he sent his sister an another e-mail request: “We took the attached photos with the new Georgia flag. If you can get these to the governor, I bet he would get a kick out of them … Tell him Georgia’s finest, Company H of the 121st Infantry, have been flying this flag over our TOC [Tactical Operations Center] in the heart of Iraq, Baghdad International Airport, and that we would like to present it to him when we get home. Good publicity for him and the unit.”

The AJC article includes the snapshot, and it seems clear and innocent enough. But when it was first published in the AJC’s Political Insider column, an amazing thing happened: “...a flood of Internet protests hit Georgia’s political circles. Flaggers, who reject the new flag as a compromise despite its Confederate roots, challenged the authenticity of the photograph. Fake, they said. Perdue’s computer-literate henchmen had painted pixels in the shape of Georgia’s newest flag, they deduced.”

There are just so many things in that one paragraph that deserve a sad but hearty chuckle. “Perdue’s computer-literate henchmen” is just a bonus giggle, the real laugh is that when faced with photographic evidence that opposes their view, some immediately turn to blame what we all now know is the Greatest Evil on this planet: Photoshop.

Photoshop doesn’t alter reality, people do.

Sorry, my metaphor ran over my train of thought. The real laugh is the near instantaneous knee jerk descent into paranoid theories of conspiracy against the Righteous Cause. No matter the fringe, it’s entirely predictable, yet ever astonishing.

And no matter the fringe, when the conspiracy is quickly debunked, sometimes those who advanced it have to crumple their aluminum foil hats in shame: “Flaggers claimed to have their proof: a pair of e-mails, said to be from infantrymen in the picture, declaring the photo to be a hoax. But efforts to use the e-mail addresses of the soldiers, as presented by the flaggers, were unsuccessful [...] ‘When you resort to forging e-mails from soldiers in Iraq—that crosses the line,’ [Governor] Perdue said Friday. ‘I’m embarrassed for them.’ ”

Capt. Hutnick isn’t embarrassed, he is deservedly pissed at some of his fellow Georgians: “ ‘We kind of take it as a personal insult—when we’re over here running missions and stuff’ [...] The general drift of his response has been simple: He and his crew don’t need this distraction. Please stop.”

Once Capt. Hutnick’s message got out, the “Flaggers” backed down from their claims of fraud … with a predictable sulk: “Ken Waters [...] now thinks ‘those brave soldiers were used as political pawns’ by the governor and the Perry Chamber of Commerce. But he has decided that the photo of the state flag in Iraq is ‘probably real, though I have no way of knowing for sure.’ Then again, Waters said he might come to the state Capitol to meet Company H next month. Then he could see both flag and soldiers with his own eyes.”

Believe his own eyes? But then he might have to poke them out, as they would clearly be evil conspirators in the Governor’s plan.

Gosh, the tone of the language is so familiar … “The photo is probably real, though I have no way of knowing for sure.” What is it that reminds me of … oh, yeah: “I am not aware of any evidence showing that President Bush or members of his administration have personally profited from the attacks of 9-11. A complete investigation might reveal that to be the case.”

Could just be me. But Cynthia aside, it’s a common tactic to cast one last aspersion of doubt at the same time you grudgingly admit the facts have proven you wrong … “It looks real (now that copious factual evidence has been produced), but I personally can’t verify that it is.”

Here’s another common tactic. Use a simple snapshot of some soldiers to slander them as part of your rabid campaign, and then claim that “those brave soldiers were used as political pawns” by your opponent. Geez, can you say “projection”?

Used as political pawns? “Those brave soldiers” who were acting entirely voluntarily, with the innocent hope, at most, of meeting the governor and maybe getting their picture in the paper?

Be careful what you wish for, boys and girls. Your picture just might end up in the paper, causing you to be called names ranging from “fraud” to “political pawn” by people who don’t know you (or the facts) at all.

Used, in the name of their “Cause.” Nothing is more important. Not you, not even Truth.

[Another cynical but non-partisan screed brought to you by The Committee For The People On The Fence]