Richard Littledale's
Views on the News: May 2009

More than a flag?

As sun climbed higher in the sky and dry earth baked to a crisp in the blistering heat of another Iraqi day, Colour Sergeant Andre Pepper, 1st Battalion Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment made history on April 30th. With a disciplined tug he loosened the flag of the 20th Armoured Brigade from its place, and lowered it carefully to the base of the flagstaff at the Brigade Headquarters in Basra. With that single act, the era of British Army combat operations in Iraq was formally brought to an end.

Presumably that flag will now find its way into the luggage of the Brigade as it prepares to ship out of Iraq and return to Paderborn, Northern Germany. It will probably find pride of place in the Regimental Headquarters, and maybe one day it will hang in the aisle of a cathedral or church, as so many regimental colours have done before it. But will it be any different to any of the Brigade's other flags? It will be the same colour and the same dimensions, made of the same material and have the same fittings as any other flag ever made for them.

Of course it will be different because of where it has been. People will look at it in years to come and remember it snapping in a desert wind at the head of the flagpole in Basra airport. Perhaps others will remember it all but obscured by smoke from mortar explosions nearby. Others will look up at it and see not the mailed fist on a dark background but the face of a husband, a son, a comrade that they have lost.

Sometimes ordinary things change out of all recognition because of the significance with which we invest them. If churches are holy places it is because of what happens there, rather than because of the buildings themselves. If bread and wine become holy, sacred things, it is because they are transformed by the words of Jesus into a potent reminder of his love for us. If printed words on a Bible's page become more than black and white notations it is because the God of Heaven has chosen to speak to us through them.

Anyone unmoved by the faces of the fallen from these past six years in Iraq is a tough soul indeed. Of course they are but a tiny proportion of all the lives lost, and far smaller in number than the Iraqis. However, these moments, such as the end of British operations in Iraq, are an opportunity to reflect. They reveal a spirituality in all of us, by whatever name we call it.

Some people would have us believe that Iraq contains not only the site of ancient Babylon, but even that of the original paradise, the Garden of Eden. For the troops returning home to friends and family they are probably seeking their paradise elsewhere. Other flags will rise and fall over other battlefields without anyone building heaven on earth. Those who owe their allegiance to the hidden kingdom of Christ will wait for another day to see his true colours revealed.