For these guys to win ANYTHING is a major victory. As much as I don't like soccer, I will take this as an opportunity to root for the underdogs.
I wonder if the USMC will be watching?

Dan Patterson

LOL, {sarcasm}the only reason they won is because they are a puppet team, propped up by the imperialist US soccer team!{/sarcasm}

This. Kicks. Ass.

It's wierd how much I care about this. I've never been to Iraq. I've never been to Portugal. I don't hate soccer, but I don't find it particularly interesting.

And yet I am completely thrilled that Iraq won this soccer game. This is huge. And I can't explain why.

Not sure who is in the running, but Iraq winning the final against France/Germany/Russia would be too goddamn sweet.

WooHOO! So I'm a soccer fan all of a sudden. How did that happen?

I have a short essay about why this is so exciting, even for non-soccer fans.

Unfortunately, you picked about the worst possible example to make your point about Iraq, seeing as the Iraqi coach is a major league asshole who hates America and doesn't believe other Olympic coaches were tortured.

I don't think it's such a bad example. Although I find it incredible that he denies the torture, I don't really care what he thinks about America. Rather, I find hope, even in the middle of that otherwise irksome article, in statements like this:

"We are trying to show the world what the Iraqi people can do."

More power to him. We need more of that. And later:

"God willing, we will make the Iraqi people proud," said the team captain, midfielder Abdul Wahab Labid, who plays in Iran. "We have - how do you call it? - spirit. Iraq has many, many problems these days. We can maybe make them forget this for a while."

Politics aside, it's cool to see that kind of hope. And as I commented on my blog, success is the opposite of victimhood, here. And if they are successful, who cares what they think about our government?

Hey Spoons -

Don't make the mistake of confusing political ends with the reality that those players have been allowed to compete without the fear of horrific torture.

I fail to see how I "picked a bad example." What do you think the purpose of my post was?

Soley for Bush to look good and get vindicated in the eyes of the world? Or perhaps to celebrate the reality that a fantastic thing was done for that country?

I'm not about to apologize for the name of the Redskins, but they are my team and the team for most of the DC-MD-VA area. I'm not getting your point (is there one). Somehow fighting a war so 900 of our soldiers can die while the terrorist threat has increased so a few guys can play soccer doesn't exactly strike me as a good idea.

But seriously, I've always been in favor of liberating Iraq somehow. But last time I checked they didn't kill 3,000 people on our soil -- and those folks haven't been destroyed yet.

So you can only think tactically is what you are saying ...

I'm not going to get into a long discussion about it, but we can suffice to say that you and I disagree on the best way to strategically approach the war on terror. I think that you are dead wrong in thinking that AQ needed to be exclusively weeded out before dealing with the Iraq problem, especially since some of them were likely hanging out IN Iraq.

But reasonable people can disagree on the methodology of the WOT. What becomes unreasonable is the "Bush lied, 900 soldiers died" crap. Implicit in that statement is the idea that they died for nothing, and you are also spreading the concept that Bush fabricated info (the same intelligence available to his legislative counterparts that voted for war authorization) in order to sacrifice American life.

It's a scandalous misrepresentation, and hardly the most intellectually honest or valid way to disagree with Bush's Iraq policy.

The soccer players are a metaphor for the greater, systemic suffering of the Iraqis. In ADDITION to the WMD issue, and the violation of the terms of the cease-fire, and the UN resolutions, etc., there was almost enough of a case to be made on human rights issues. Not quite, but almost.

As far as the football joke, I'll let up on it when you have a sit-down with your co-worker over the insane charges of racism against Reynolds. It might also do you some good to realize that most of your instincts that might make you sensitive to racist angles in your punditry may be undermined by your casual acceptance of a racist icon that seriously pisses off many Native Americans.

We went to war for a soccer team? That's a new one!

The left's ability to shamelessly redifine the argument at any time is amazing.