Iraqi soccer team speaks out against bush tv spot
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Iraqi soccer team speaks out against bush tv spot
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."
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."
The Bush campaign was contacted about the Iraqi soccer player's statements, but has yet to respond.
To a man, members of the Iraqi Olympic delegation say they are glad that former Olympic committee head Uday Hussein, who was responsible for the serial torture of Iraqi athletes and was killed four months after the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003, is no longer in power.
But they also find it offensive that Bush is using their team for his own gain when they do not support his administration's actions in Iraq. "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 [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?"
At a speech in Beaverton, Ore., last Friday, Bush attached himself to the Iraqi soccer team after its opening-game upset of Portugal. "The image of the Iraqi soccer team playing in this Olympics, it's fantastic, isn't it?" Bush said. "It wouldn't have been free if the United States had not acted."
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 [in Fallujah] has been labeled a terrorist. These are all lies. Fallujah people are some of the best people in Iraq."
Everyone agrees that Iraq's soccer team is one of the Olympics' most remarkable stories. If the Iraqis beat Australia on Saturday -- which is entirely possible, given their performance so far -- they would reach the semifinals. Three of the four semifinalists will earn medals, a prospect that seemed unthinkable for Iraq before this tournament.
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."
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."
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."
The Bush campaign was contacted about the Iraqi soccer player's statements, but has yet to respond.
To a man, members of the Iraqi Olympic delegation say they are glad that former Olympic committee head Uday Hussein, who was responsible for the serial torture of Iraqi athletes and was killed four months after the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003, is no longer in power.
But they also find it offensive that Bush is using their team for his own gain when they do not support his administration's actions in Iraq. "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 [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?"
At a speech in Beaverton, Ore., last Friday, Bush attached himself to the Iraqi soccer team after its opening-game upset of Portugal. "The image of the Iraqi soccer team playing in this Olympics, it's fantastic, isn't it?" Bush said. "It wouldn't have been free if the United States had not acted."
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 [in Fallujah] has been labeled a terrorist. These are all lies. Fallujah people are some of the best people in Iraq."
Everyone agrees that Iraq's soccer team is one of the Olympics' most remarkable stories. If the Iraqis beat Australia on Saturday -- which is entirely possible, given their performance so far -- they would reach the semifinals. Three of the four semifinalists will earn medals, a prospect that seemed unthinkable for Iraq before this tournament.
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."
hate to say it but i agree with them, bush shouldnt be trying to cozy up with them like that.
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Originally Posted by dr3d1zzl3
hate to say it but i agree with them, bush shouldnt be trying to cozy up with them like that.
I say we torture them ourselves.
#6
That guy is a piece of $hit. Maybe he should go be part of the uprise against the U.S. so that he can get what he deserves. The only reason that ***ER even has the chance to play at the Olympics is because we [U.S] gave it to him.
-SZ
-SZ
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Originally Posted by SUB-ZERO
That guy is a piece of $hit. Maybe he should go be part of the uprise against the U.S. so that he can get what he deserves. The only reason that ***ER even has the chance to play at the Olympics is because we [U.S] gave it to him.
-SZ
-SZ
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Originally Posted by MonkeyAB
And killed his cousin. What would you rather have, a cousin or a chance to play soccer? If you had to choose.
Although they should be somewhat grateful to the US Forces for liberating them from that *** Saddam, Bush should not be using the image for political gain.
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This is about the most worthless thing I think you've posted, Dre...
Bush has only been praising and expressing the fact they'd still be milking camels and using them as goal posts if it wasn't for the occupation of Iraq. Had it not been for Bush, the selfish Iraqi soccer team wouldn't have been able to compete (or any sport for that matter in Iraq) for it's 16th year!
He hasn't mentioned anything about the type of caliber players they are nor his involvement in their success, but rather they wouldn't be participating in the Olympics if it wasn't for OIF.
Here's an irrelevant quote based on the topic:
*sigh* Let's take the "unbiased opinion" of someone that was born and raised in a city loyal to Saddam & who's cousins were killed as insurgents . + [/sarcasm] x eleventyzillion.
There's elderly women and men in Japan today that've hated Americans since we dropped the bomb on them twice! Yet our foreign relation with Japan in trade and commerce is extremely strong. Hell, I just married one...
Here's another quote you can paint a pretty picture on:
Nothing like quoting a hard-headed, young, naive, selfish and egotistical athlete.
He's so concerned about stealing the goose that lays the golden eggs that's he's completely forgotten that he wouldn't be given the right to express his views for this very interview had it not been for Bush!
He obviously chose soccer... if this was such a sour spot for him then he could have protested the United States by NOT picking up a soccer ball
This entire article is ****ing pointless.
Bush has only been praising and expressing the fact they'd still be milking camels and using them as goal posts if it wasn't for the occupation of Iraq. Had it not been for Bush, the selfish Iraqi soccer team wouldn't have been able to compete (or any sport for that matter in Iraq) for it's 16th year!
He hasn't mentioned anything about the type of caliber players they are nor his involvement in their success, but rather they wouldn't be participating in the Olympics if it wasn't for OIF.
Here's an irrelevant quote based on the topic:
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.
There's elderly women and men in Japan today that've hated Americans since we dropped the bomb on them twice! Yet our foreign relation with Japan in trade and commerce is extremely strong. Hell, I just married one...
Here's another quote you can paint a pretty picture on:
"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."
He's so concerned about stealing the goose that lays the golden eggs that's he's completely forgotten that he wouldn't be given the right to express his views for this very interview had it not been for Bush!
Originally Posted by MonkeyAB
And killed his cousin. What would you rather have, a cousin or a chance to play soccer? If you had to choose.
This entire article is ****ing pointless.
Last edited by Salty; 08-24-2004 at 01:08 PM.
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If someone invaded your country what would you do? I can tell you what I would do. Being the hard headed young man that I am, I would probably fight against that invasion with all that I had. Alot of the people fighting in the insurgency are the same people that were celebrating in the streets when Saddam was toppled. The problem is they expected us to just go away once Saddam was gone but obviously we couldn't do that. It is a tough line to tread this nation building business. I just pray that our soldiers come home safe everyday and that this conflict is over sooner than later to spare more lives on all sides.
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Originally Posted by SilverScoober02
The problem is they expected us to just go away once Saddam was gone but obviously we couldn't do that.
Originally Posted by Salty
Nothing like quoting a hard-headed, young, naive, selfish and egotistical athlete.
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Originally Posted by Salty
There's elderly women and men in Japan today that've hated Americans since we dropped the bomb on them twice! Yet our foreign relation with Japan in trade and commerce is extremely strong. Hell, I just married one...
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lmao
:banana:
BTW, when does the Iraqi team play next? I am gonna play where's Waldo in my search for Bush in the stands. Ive got money on the binge drinker flashing his man-****
:banana:
BTW, when does the Iraqi team play next? I am gonna play where's Waldo in my search for Bush in the stands. Ive got money on the binge drinker flashing his man-****
Last edited by dub2w; 08-24-2004 at 05:01 PM.
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