Flags raise controversy in Dallas

DALLAS, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The flags of Mexico and the United States, flying atop a pole in the yard of a Dallas man's home have earned the ire of some veterans in his neighborhood.

Apparently, the flags in front of Louis Garza's home are positioned so the U.S. flag is below the Mexican flag.

A Korean War veteran and Garza's neighbor told The Dallas Morning News, "It irritates the hell out of me. We didn't go to war to fly a Mexican flag over our flag."

At his home where a bust of Abraham Lincoln sits on a bookcase, the 71-year-old Garza says he first switched the flags placing the Mexican flag on top to protest the war in Iraq.

Garza, a U.S. citizen, said: "We've got all these young kids over there dying and for what ... nothing." He said it is his freedom of expression to fly the flag any way he wants.

The U.S. flag code says no other national flag can be flown above that of the U.S. flag, but The News said the rules are only guidelines.

A retired colonel, who knows Garza, isn't so upset as other veterans. "Everybody knows (Garza would) give you the shirt off his back if you asked for it."