Afghanistan Boldly Raises Its Colours, With Help From India
Kabul, Afghanistan: To find a flag as big as the one hoisted over Kabul's historic Wazir Akbar Khan hill Wednesday, you would have to go pretty far - possibly as far as a Wal-Mart parking lot somewhere in the Great Plains.
Flying from a specially erected flagpole more than 200 feet high - taller than the Statue of Liberty replica in Las Vegas - the black, red and green flag, at 97 by 65 feet, is big enough to drape over a Dreadnoughtus dinosaur (tail included). It is hundreds of square yards bigger than any other known Afghan banner.
Oddly, despite 13 years and more than half a trillion dollars of U.S. investment in Afghanistan, when this country finally got its first supersized flag to fly over the capital last week, the donor was not from among the descendants of Betsy Ross.
Instead, the Afghan megaflag was personally presented by Sushma Swaraj, the new foreign minister of India. The half-million-dollar gift was partly underwritten by an Indian billionaire, Naveen Jindal, whose Flag Foundation of India was founded to encourage Indian homes to fly their own flags at a practically U.S. rate.
Political pundits quickly noted the symbolism of India's helping Afghanistan erect a flag big enough to be seen from the U.S. surveillance blimp on the other side of the capital. The point would surely not be lost on Pakistan, which has always looked unfavorably at overtures between India and Afghanistan.
The Indian flag project is also seen as a subtle message to the Americans, who are bringing their combat mission in Afghanistan to a close this year without any guarantee yet of a future military role here. The bilateral security agreement that would allow that remains unsigned by President Hamid Karzai, and the inauguration of his successor is months overdue, hung up by a protracted election dispute.
"This will show Pakistan and further weaken its role in Afghanistan," said political analyst Bashir Bezhan. "And for President Karzai, it would have a message to the West that his neighboring powers are behind him."
Swaraj said at the flag-raising ceremony, "India will always be the first strategic partner of Afghanistan, and we are committed to assist Afghanistan in whatever way possible within our means."
Flags have had a tattered history in Afghanistan, with a succession of different ones during the past 35 years of civil war and insurgency.
The Taliban, for instance, went counterintuitive, sticking with a plain white banner - until someone pointed out that was for surrendering, and they added the Shahada verses to it in black.
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Afghanistan Boldly Raises Its Colours, With Help From India