I liked my flag best, and a thing or two about De-Baathification

"I'm happy about the flag change and the new de-Baathification amendments, but reading the papers this morning still managed to get my blood to boil. And it got me thinking about the past and what events led up to these stories.

Back in the old days, when we in the Iraqi opposition were sorting out through what should get done in the first couple of weeks after the liberation of Baghdad, I came up with a design for a new Iraqi flag.

I was riding in a car somewhere in Washington DC, when I frantically began demanding a piece of paper and a pen; I had to commit the image in my head to the official record. For those of you with a knack for conspiracy theories, that little piece of paper came with American Enterprise Institute letterhead.

I didn’t want a flag with the color red in it; Iraq has had enough of a fascination with blood. And I wanted a flag that gave a nod to Iraq’s geography and some of its national colors.

So this is what it looked like:"
Talisman Gate