NYPost

IRAQ MISSION'S FLAG EXCUSE HALF-BAKED

By STEVE DUNLEAVY

September 19, 2001 -- AT THE building housing the Permanent Delegation of Iraq to the United Nations at 14 E. 79th St. in Manhattan, there was something wrong with the picture.

It was 2:10 in the afternoon, and a cop friend of mine called outraged just before he and his brothers returned to the horror of Ground Hero.

"The flag of Iraq is flying at full-mast while every foreign government in New York I know, out of respect, is flying their country's flags at half-mast.

"Are they rubbing our nose in it and trying to cause a backlash here against innocent Arab people?" he said.

I went to the Iraqi mission and, sure enough, saw the red, white and black flag fluttering at full-staff outside the delegation's magnificent townhouse.

Approaching a locked door, I was buzzed inside, and security immediately made a call upstairs. Within a minute, a young gentleman appeared.

I politely identified myself, showed my press credentials, and asked why in a city with flags at half staff would Iraq have its flag at full-staff.

"I have to ask you to leave the premises, sir," he said, just as politely as I had introduced myself. He led me to the door, but not before saying in an accent that screamed higher education than mine:

"You know we had so much trouble getting it to full-mast on that pole, maybe we just physically couldn't get it to half-mast."

Perhaps a defiant act of commission, perhaps an accidental act of omission - or maybe an engineering problem with an unsophisticated flag pole.

I mention the last option because, quite obviously, the Abraham Lincoln School of Practical Philosophy next door at No. 12 has Old Glory flying at half-staff.

A few doors down, the Archdiocese of the Greek Orthodox Church was flying both blue and white church flag and the Stars and Stripes at half-staff.

A little farther down the street, at No. 18, Acquavella Galleries apparently had ponied up for a better flagpole, because it too was flying Old Glory at half-staff.

Maybe the Iraqis could come up with the cash for a state-of-the-art flagpole.

Look, we are at a time when we have to listen extremely closely to President Bush in his exhortations not to take mindless acts of crazed vengeance against the millions of law-abiding decent Arab-Americans who came here for a better life and to get away from the Saddam Husseins of this world.

But at Atlantic Avenue and Clinton Street, and at Atlantic and Henry, in Brooklyn, cops have been chasing away young men having their pictures taken while hugging each other and smiling with the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center in the background.

"It makes you angry, but you know it's a few crazy young guys who are not representative of the Arab-Americans in the precincts around Atlantic Avenue, who are good people" said a cop who is a close friend of mine.

Still, good flagpoles are hard to find these days.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

Answers

I can think of several ways to 'fix' that pole.

Hope someone closer comes up with a working plan for it.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

http://www.nypost.com/commentary/4545.htm

FLY YOUR BANNERS - WHILE YOU CAN

By STEVE DUNLEAVY

September 20, 2001 -- LET their pathetic little flags flutter limply in our wind of freedom.

The governments of Iraq and Libya think they're making a defiant statement by flying their missions' flags at full-staff in war-torn New York.

Let's give them this. They're making themselves heard loud and clear.

Nowhere was their message heard louder than in Rockaway, Queens, where retired firefighter Jack Dugan and hundreds of his friends said their final farewells to a war hero - 48-year-old Capt. Walter Hynes.

"Sure, I think it's outrageous, but in many ways we should be grateful," Dugan said. "Now we know who they are."

It was a long day for Jack and his fellow retirees.

After saying good-bye to Hynes, they took a sad trip to Staten Island to pay respects to a second war hero, Louis Arena, 27.

I'd love to have seen the despots in their sand castles look in the face of Ronnie Hynes, the fallen hero's wife, and see her three daughters.

Oh yes, there were gaping holes in their hearts - which somehow seemed to fill very quickly with pride.

I'd love to have seen the despots in the sand castles look into the face of Wanda Arena as she led her tiny children, Joseph and Nina, toward their father's final resting place.

Tears of abject sadness? Of course. But an overwhelming sense that those men did not die in vain.

So let their little flags flutter in ignominy for as long as we'll allow.

This week, we're burying our war heroes. For President Bush rightfully said we are at war - and that makes the fallen firefighters, cops and other emergency workers indeed war heroes.

"I never quite thought of it that way," said Jimmy McEneny, who was with me at both funerals.

"But you're right. If it's a war, then they're war heroes and should be awarded accordingly."

Retired firefighter Dick Webb, the best buddy of Hynes, said: "I was already a fireman when I met him as a kid. He was 13. I guess he looked up to me. Little did I know I would end up becoming his partner and little did I know I'd be at his funeral.

"All I have to say is he had pure guts."

A fitting epitaph for a war hero.

The Rev. Mark Vailliencort was speaking from the pulpit about Officer Arena:

"Louis and fellow officers were not there at the World Trade Center for their daily occupation. He and those brave others were there for the fidelity of their duty.

"He gave his life so others might live."

Another epitaph for a war hero.

People like you and I run from danger. Firemen and cops run toward it.

Billy Crowley, a member of the Emerald Pipe Band, said: "I wonder if those guys in the Libyan and Iraqi government and whoever did this start to get the idea of what they have bitten off. I promise you they will not be able to chew it."

Remember the words of retired firefighter Jack Dugan. "At least we know who they are."

The arrogant tyrants who refuse to join the rest of the world in a display of respect for our war heroes may think they're kicking dirt in our face. But they're going to wind up eating that dirt in the sand castles of cowards.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2001