As US troops rolled toward the Iraq border this week, they were given orders on two matters of decorum: no throwing of candy to Iraqi children and no displaying of flags -- regimental, state or even the American flag.
Military officials say that candy giveaways would draw swarms of children to the convoys, a dangerous proposition with thousands of trucks, Humvees and trailers barreling toward Baghdad.
As for the ban on flags, its effect was apparent in this camp on Wednesday, where no more than a handful of vehicles mustering for the invasion displayed any.
Officials say the flag could give the citizens of Iraq the wrong idea about the convoys of artillery, ammunition and soldiers. They are not, these officials say, an army of conquest, intent on claiming Iraqi land or treasure for the US, but a liberation force. They are concerned that streams of American flags would be seen as provocative.
"It's imposing enough that we're coming into another society," said Captain Frank Stanco, a commander with an artillery unit in the 101st Airborne Division. "I tell our soldiers we want to maintain our professionalism. We could be making history. I call it being quiet professionals."
In 1991, at the end of the Persian Gulf war, American military convoys entered Kuwait festooned with the stars and stripes after a quick rout of the Iraqi army occupying the country. Soldiers recall being greeted rapturously by the Kuwaitis.
On Wednesday afternoon, thousands of soldiers sat in long convoys, fully packed and waiting for orders to begin an invasion that would carry many of them 400 miles north to Baghdad. Only a handful of the vehicles flew American flags.
One of those was a "water buffalo" -- a truck towing potable water -- but the sergeant in charge of it shook his head and walked away when asked about the flag, which flew from a pole strapped to the side of the truck.
Another soldier waiting for the convoy to move, Specialist John Garcia, said he was ordered to take the flag off his Humvee for security reasons.
"They said it was because we would be an easy target," Garcia said. "It got me real upset. I had just bought that flag."
The no-flags order was passed along to the 101st Airborne by its commander, Major General David Petraeus, who said that the decision had been made by people higher up the command chain.
"It's the right thing to do," said Petraeus, a way of underscoring the American commitment to regime change for security and human rights, and not to the seizing of the country.
Spokesmen for the US Central Command in Qatar said on Wednesday that they were unable to provide information about the order.
The question of flag-flying provoked a small debate among artillerymen waiting to leave camp on Wednesday.
Garcia said he was angry that he had been ordered to take down his flag, and that so few countries were supporting the US and Britain in the military campaign.
"When they're in trouble, they don't call Russia, China, France, Turkey," said Garcia. "They call 911, the United States. That's why I put my flag on my Humvee."
Another soldier, Specialist Robert Bratton, said: "You can't blame them. You got a lot of Americans back in the states against it."
Sergeant Elmer Smith, said the US was seen as interfering in the affairs of too many countries.
Bratton said: "What's the reason we're fighting?"
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