For a country as patriotic as the United States, displaying the American flag carries ... by depicting it backwards on the ...

This, in effect, is what the flag is doing when it's "backward." It's waving, facing forward. The American flag also appears to be flying backward on military uniforms, and the logic behind this ...

That's because the flag on an American servicemember's uniform is backward. That is to say, the canton (the top left corner), which houses the blue field of 50 white stars, is in the upper right.