And, yes, the island nation’s president, Benigno Aquino III, was sitting at President Obama’s left elbow at their ASEAN meeting in New York City last week. And directly behind Aquino the American staff placed the Philippines’ flag, well, kind of upside down. (That’s it second from the right in the photo above, the one with all the blue at the bottom, which should be at the top.)

In the Philippines displaying the flag like that means the nation is at war. Which, of course, it isn’t.