There is something in the DNA of todays Republican that makes him or her incapable of simply presenting the truth of the matter. There they are -- ready to make a plain assertion -- and a voice whispers in their ear "Go ahead ... nobody will notice if you stretch the truth a little ... God's on your side and I'm sure He wouldn't mind it if you goosed your point a bit. It's His work, after all."
Such must have been the case for Wally Herger when he was choosing pictures from his 2004 Iraq trip for his website. He could have chosen pictures from his trip to Iraq that were all taken
in Iraq, but that giant flag flying proudly over Amman, the capital of Jordan, must have been too tempting. What better way to illustrate that the people of Iraq were following Republican talking point fantasies than to show
Baghdad peacefully united beneath one giant flag?
Dude, it's a Jordanian flag.
You could have checked with the CIA, but I guess checking with the CIA isn't a Republican strongpoint. Here (according to the CIA) is the Jordanian flag:
Here's the Iraqi flag for reference. Take the CIAs word for it:
I have not yet found an online photo of Amman that was taken from the same viewpoint as the Herger photo, so I cannot absolutely confirm that the photo he labeled Baghdad is Amman (maybe some kossack google sleuth can help) but it is clearly someplace in Jordan, and Amman is know for having a huge flag.
BTW Herger will no doubt claim (as Kaloogian did before him) that this was a mistake ... so many pictures from the trip ... some intern did it ... it's the webmasters fault ...
Much like the Bush Cheney decision to lead us into invading Iraq, that would be either a lie or incompetence.
Let's see how long it takes for this photo to get pulled from Herger's website.
Thanks to anthonyLA for showing the way.
Update
The 40oz Funk found a confirming photo showing this is definitely Amman, and Silent Lurker finds another Amman picture from Herger's website which is labeled Baghdad. See the comments.