American Civilians

An anonymous respondent to my post on flag etiquette writes:
If military personnel are required to salute a foreign national anthem, affordint it the same respect as their own, then it stands to reason that civilians should do likewise.

This is a common misconception. In a nation where the people are sovereign, every American is in effect a "king"... an embodied fragment of the national sovereignty. Those who join the military perform a vital service, but by entering "the ranks" they are assigned a rank that civilians don't have. Every civilian effectively "outranks" every military soldier and thus no civilian is expected to follow military protocol.

According to the US Military:

Salutes are not required when—

• Indoors, except when reporting to an officer or when on duty as a guard.
  
• Addressing a prisoner.
  
• Saluting is obviously inappropriate. In these cases, only greetings are exchanged.
  
• Either the senior or the subordinate is wearing civilian clothes.

The flag code and military code often note the difference of protocols required for civilians and for the military. In the American system rank among civilians is explicitly repudiated by the Constitution. Thus, it is inappropriate for civilians to follow the same standards of protocol as the military.