In these difficult times, it can be hard for an older country to get out there and mingle with a confident sense of self. Especially if you’re Iraq, where nobody wants to rally to a common identity or even one flag. But desperate times call for desperate measures:
Some officials have called for reinstating mandatory military service, in the belief it would bring communities together. Others have suggested promoting mixed marriages between Sunnis and Shiites by offering cash incentives. Still others say that promoting Iraq’s pre-Islamic past, as the cradle of civilization, could offer something from which Iraqis could build a degree of national unity.
Yes, they just might need to go full Mesopotamian on everyone.
Iraqis Rally Around Many Flags as a National Identity Falters http://t.co/oZsXh5aeQo
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) December 22, 2014
