I think that when people are very patriotic, it can lead them to be arrogant.

Are you patriotic? Do you think it is a good thing or a bad thing? Harmless pride in your country or just plain arrogance? Do you think patriotism can blind people to the truth?

I wasn't sure which board to put this on, which is why it's on here, but I suppose it could also fit on the War board because there's been a lot of gung-ho American patriots among the troops in Iraq recently.
Classic example of patriotism turning into idiotic arrogance: When American troops took Baghdad and put the American flag up, instead of the Iraqi flag.
Yeah. Really smart, guys. Well done. Go USA!!!! YEAH! Woo! Woo!
*Drowns in pool of sarcasm.*
As you may have gathered, patriotism gets on my nerves.

-Pen

Penmagic, you seem to have confused "patriotism" with "jingoism". Patriotism is when you are proud of your country and are a good citizen of not just it but the world. Jingoism is when you excuse stupidity, propaganda, or your own agenda by calling it patriotic. When you are jingoistic, you are wrapping yourself in the flag or demonizing your opponents as "unpatriotic". Its when people confuse or switch the two around that disaster strikes, not when they're patriotic.

Whetever the intention, it was kind of stupid. It just adds something for those against America to latch onto, whatever it was really meant to 'symbolise'. Overall the war was handled well but that was a real lapse of judgement!

Bex

Correction, both Iraqis and Americans placed their respective flags on Saddam's statue. Actually, the American flag was on the statue for only a few seconds, before an Iraqi went up and placed his own flag there. Al Jazerra however took this and used it as propaganda, saying that this was a clear sign of Americans marking their new territory of Iraq for imperialist occupation.

The placing of the Flag by both the Americans and Iraqis was a symbolic gesture on both sides. It essentially meant that Saddam's face would be a memory, shrouded by the new Freedom's given by the Americans and enjoyed by Iraqis. That was the whole point behind the "masking" of Saddam by the flag, it was part of the American and Iraqi people's victory. It wasn't a display of jingoism, but more akin to the destruction of the Berlin wall and Soviet statues at the end of the 1980s.