if he didn't play soccer. Let's focus on NOW for a minute. Drop the smearvets and LOOK AT WHAT THESE GUYS ARE SAYING...
"My problems are not with the American people," says Iraqi soccer coach Adnan Hamad. "They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the
stadium and there are shootings on the road?"
Sadir, Wednesday's goal-scorer, used to be the star player for the professional soccer team in Najaf..."I want the violence and the war to go away from the city," says Sadir, 21. "We don't wish for the presence of Americans in our country. We want them to go away."
Manajid, 22, who nearly scored his own goal with a driven header on Wednesday, hails from the city of Fallujah. He says coalition forces killed Manajid's cousin, Omar Jabbar al-Aziz, who was fighting as an insurgent, and several of his friends. In fact, Manajid says, if he were not playing soccer he would "for sure" be fighting as part of the resistance.
"I want to defend my home. If a stranger invades America and the people resist, does that mean they are terrorists?" Manajid says. "Everyone has been labeled a terrorist. These are all lies. Fallujah people are some of the best people in Iraq."
When the Games are over, though, Coach Hamad says, they will have to return home to a place where they fear walking the streets. "The war is not secure," says Hamad, 43. "Many people hate America now. The Americans have lost many people around the world--and that is what is happening in America also."
*******
Why are we letting this be relegated to Sports Illustrated, for heaven's sake, while the Smearboats cover the headlines? These guys are the big stars of the moment, and the headline is just this stuff about Bush using them in an ad.
Well, who cares about that--the news here is that the DARLINGS of the Iraqi population are saying they want Americans gone because of the destruction they've caused, and they SUPPORT the insurgency, while Bush is warbling, "The image of the Iraqi soccer team playing in this Olympics, it's fantastic, isn't it? It wouldn't have been free if the United States had not acted."
If this isn't evidence of a complete reality break for Bush and the U.S., I don't know what is. Bush has mismanaged the whole thing so horribly that the guys who've been "freed" want to be freed from us. In so many words.
What can Kerry do with this?