Iraq and the Olympics

[erpowers]

I am not against the Iraqi team during well in Iraq. However, I do believe that they went to the Olympics before Saddam was deposed so I do not think the story should be given so much publicity. In addition, Bush is now trying to take credit for the Iraqi team being there. He is using them and the Afganistan team in his new ad. In addition, he said that the Iraqi team would not be in the Olympics if the U.S. had not acted. So back to what I said in the beginning of this post. How can Bush take credit for the Iraqi team being in the Olympics if they had gone their before the war. Mike Malloy just mentioned the response of members of the Iraqi team.

[Danger Duck]

1. I believe

that they(Iraq) have not been in the olympics since 1992. I haven't seen the ad, and I didn't even know afganastan had a team. But it's nice that Bush is taking credit for something. It makes sense, I'm sure members of these nations have had their strenght and agility tested running from bombs, being tortured, and rebuilding society in general in the face of a massive occupation and crusade.

[DebJ]

4. great reply!

:toast:

[pnorman]

2. Read this (heh heh!):

PATRAS, Greece -- Iraqi midfielder Salih Sadir scored
a goal here on Wednesday night, setting off a rousing
celebration among the 1,500 Iraqi soccer supporters at
Pampeloponnisiako Stadium. Though Iraq -- the surprise
team of the Olympics -- would lose to Morocco 2-1, it
hardly mattered as the Iraqis won Group D with a 2-1
record and now face Australia in the quarterfinals on
Sunday.

Afterward, Sadir had a message for U.S. president
George W. Bush, who is using the Iraqi Olympic team in
his latest re-election campaign advertisements.

In those spots, the flags of Iraq and Afghanistan
appear as a narrator says, "At this Olympics there
will be two more free nations -- and two fewer
terrorist regimes."

"Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for
the presidential campaign," Sadir told SI.com through
a translator, speaking calmly and directly. "He can
find another way to advertise himself."
>
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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/olympics/2004/writers/08/19/iraq/index.html?cnn=yes

[DebJ]

3. Here's what the Iraqi soccer team says on cnn.com;its great

Full story at:


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/olympics/2004/writers/08/19/iraq/index.html

Unwilling participants
Iraqi soccer players angered by Bush campaign ads
Posted: Thursday August 19, 2004 12:50PM; Updated: Thursday August 19, 2004 5:03PM

(cut)


"Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign," Sadir told SI.com through a translator, speaking calmly and directly. "He can find another way to advertise himself."

Ahmed Manajid, who played as a midfielder on Wednesday, had an even stronger response when asked about Bush's TV advertisement. "How will he meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women?" Manajid told me. "He has committed so many crimes."

(cut)


But they also find it offensive that Bush is using IIraq for his own gain when they do not support his administration's actions. "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?"

(cut)

Sadir, Wednesday's goal-scorer, used to be the star player for the professional soccer team in Najaf. In the city in which 20,000 fans used to fill the stadium and chant Sadir's name, U.S. and Iraqi forces have battled loyalists to rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr for the past two weeks. Najaf lies in ruins.

"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."