Iraqi footballers' fury at Bush

[SunWuKong]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3584242.stm

Iraqi footballers' fury at Bush

Iraq's successful Olympic football team has launched an outspoken attack on US President George W Bush.

Midfielder Salih Sadir said the team - which won its group stage in Greece - was angry it had been used in Mr Bush's re-election campaign ads.

One accused the US leader of committing "many crimes", and another said he would be fighting US troops if not for Athens.

Their comments were made in a US Sports Illustrated magazine interview.

Salih Sadir said he was angry at Mr Bush's campaign adverts showing pictures of the Afghan and Iraqi flags with the words: "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," said the Iraqi player.

"He can find another way to advertise himself."

He called for US troops to be withdrawn from Iraq. "We don't wish for the presence of the Americans in our country. We want them to go away."

Another star player, 22-year-old Ahmed Manajid, asked: "How will [Mr Bush] meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes."

'Best people'

Mr Manajid, from Falluja - a hotbed of armed opposition to the US-led occupation in Iraq - said if he was not playing football "for sure" he would 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?" he asked.

"Everyone [in Falluja] has been labelled a terrorist. These are all lies. Falluja people are some of the best people in Iraq."

The team said they were glad Iraq's former Olympic committee head Uday Hussein - Saddam Hussein's notorious son killed by US forces after the invasion - was no longer in charge.

But coach Adnan Hamad said he was concerned with what the Bush administration was doing in Iraq.

"My problems are not with the American people. They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything," he said.

"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?"

Mr Bush's spokesman defended the war on Iraq and the campaign adverts.

"The ad simply talks about President Bush's optimism and how democracy has triumphed over terror," he was quoted by the Press Association as saying.

"Twenty-five million people in Iraq are free as a result of the actions of the coalition."

[Banana]

Milk! Milk! Milk! Milk! Milk! Milk! Milk! Milk! Milk! Milk!

[Kuchana]

And just think...all of them who would "dare" to say such things would have immediately been killed by Saddam or Uday among others. Long live freedom and the right to say whatever you want to because you know you won't die for having said it. They have the freedom to say what they will now. I wonder if they realize it? Although Bush could have left out the terrorist part and just simply left it at "two more free nations."

[Banana]

It's the Olympics. Bush and his minions should have left politics out.

I always love when we try to compare us to something evil. What's up with this "We suck less then them" mentality?

"America. Better than Saddam."

[SunWuKong]

And just think...all of them who would "dare" to say such things would have immediately been killed by Saddam or Uday among others. Long live freedom and the right to say whatever you want to because you know you won't die for having said it. They have the freedom to say what they will now. I wonder if they realize it? Although Bush could have left out the terrorist part and just simply left it at "two more free nations."

i don't know... what do you think they would prefer, the freedom to say they don't like the US, or to have 10,000+ Iraqi civilians not die from the US invasion?

[Kuchana]

i don't know... what do you think they would prefer, the freedom to say they don't like the US, or to have 10,000+ Iraqi civilians not die from the US invasion?

Are you also taking into account the thousands more that Saddam and his regime murdered prior?

I'm hardly forgetting the civilians that have died since unfortunately the innocent die in war but think about how many died under Saddam.

It's the Olympics. Bush and his minions should have left politics out.

I always love when we try to compare us to something evil. What's up with this "We suck less then them" mentality?

"America. Better than Saddam."

It's the Olympics. The President has to acknowledge it. To not acknowledge the entries of Afghanistan and Iraq in the Olympics as well as the prominence of Muslim women athletes would go against the Olympic spirit.

[rice cracker]

More civilians are still being killed, with Saddam nicely locked up.

[Banana]

It's the Olympics. The President has to acknowledge it. To not acknowledge the entries of Afghanistan and Iraq in the Olympics as well as the prominence of Muslim women athletes would go against the Olympic spirit.

See, I have no problem with that. However, Bush and Co. are milking it here in the states for his own selfish reelection campaign.

[SunWuKong]

Are you also taking into account the thousands more that Saddam and his regime murdered prior?

I'm hardly forgetting the civilians that have died since unfortunately the innocent die in war but think about how many died under Saddam.

the football team didn't say they prefer Sadam's rule now, did they? it is a fact that the majority of the deaths in the Iraq War occured after Saddam was ousted, during the occupation which still stands now.

they have every right to tell American forces to get out. the invasion was a unilateral decision in the first place, illegal by UN's decision, and ironically, the US had used UN violations as a justification to invade. the fact that the football team said what it did speaks for the situation itself. they would know better than any of us, since they are, in fact, Iraqi, and live in Iraq.

[deez nuts]

He called for US troops to be withdrawn from Iraq. "We don't wish for the presence of the Americans in our country. We want them to go away."



what an ingrate.

off with his head i say! off with it!

[hooligan]

Are you also taking into account the thousands more that Saddam and his regime murdered prior?

I'm hardly forgetting the civilians that have died since unfortunately the innocent die in war but think about how many died under Saddam.

I think the problem lies in the fact that there even has to be a comparison made between Saddam and Bush. It's kind of ironic, because now instead of saying we're here to free them, we're saying, "look, it was worse under Saddam. now move along."

If everything was done for the right reasons, I don't think it would have turned out like this.



Unwilling participants: Iraqi soccer players angered
by Bush campaign ads featuring team

Sports Illustrated

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."

[SunWuKong]

"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?"

therein lies a very important fact that many Americans cannot grasp. freedom is not held higher than prosperity, and hell, not held higher than basic safety and having the basic necessities of life.

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."

how absolutely fucking condescending.

[Danny]

I dont care what the Iraqi soccer player thinks.. Just like I don't care what an actor states when he is accepting his academy... I don't care what Shaq thinks.... these guys are there to play soccer, shut your damn yapper, play the game...

I have not seen the ad... did it just say two more countries are in the olympics? Or does it go into women and the Iraqi soccer team?

None the less.... just because you can put a round figure on that amount of deaths since the war, imagine how many died that you do not know about during the Saddam reign, then ask the Iraqi's what they would rather have?

[cmar]

Bush is apparently still under the delusion that the Iraqi people wanted us to invade their country and kill them.

[Kuchana]

Bush is apparently still under the delusion that the Iraqi people wanted us to invade their country and kill them.

Are you speaking for the entire Iraqi people? Which would have been preferable pray tell? More years under Saddam's rule or the U.S. intervening with the current present only to improve in the future whereas with Saddam there would have been no future and no hope to exist upon?

[Emperor_Mike]

Are you speaking for the entire Iraqi people? Which would have been preferable pray tell? More years under Saddam's rule or the U.S. intervening with the current present only to improve in the future whereas with Saddam there would have been no future and no hope to exist upon?

Grey area. With Saddam in power Iraq would more or less remain a secularised state. Without Saddam in power and if the Coalition should fail to uphold order the world may have yet another Islamic theocracy to deal with. And with theocracies hell bent on seeing the "Great Satan" destroyed, the West and the world as a whole will be stepping even closer to the brink of the chasm. After all, the whole reason behind supporting Saddam's secular government in the first place was to offset the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Saddam would have to be dealt with sooner or later, but jumping in there head on to dismantle the entire regime probably wasn't the wisest thing to do. Now we have that Shiite cleric holed away somewhat vowing to fight to the death, foreign fighters coming into from god knows where, an ineffective interim government and mounting casualties. I don't think the major news services are reporting on daily tolls anymore.

In any case, from a pure political standpoint, the question that should be asked is whether the continued oppression of the Iraqi people is worth risking regional and possibly global instability. Quite frankly, I don't know. It's too late to debate on these items anyway. All we can do now is hope that the US and its coalition partners will succeed and that Al Sadr will either throw in the towel or be wiped out along with his supporters.

[moser]

It's the Olympics. The President has to acknowledge it. To not acknowledge the entries of Afghanistan and Iraq in the Olympics as well as the prominence of Muslim women athletes would go against the Olympic spirit.

But in a political ad, his use of the Olympics (the event, name, etc.) is questionable, and the US Olympic Committee has requested that those ads not be run.

SF Gate article (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/08/20/politics1727EDT0653.DTL)

Also, if the athletes object to the use of their image/invocation/etc. in some manner, the President should respect their wishes. After all, it belongs to the athletes, not the President.

[rice cracker]

Are you speaking for the entire Iraqi people? Which would have been preferable pray tell? More years under Saddam's rule or the U.S. intervening with the current present only to improve in the future whereas with Saddam there would have been no future and no hope to exist upon?

Not to be snotty, but your response begs the question:

Are you speaking for the entire Iraqi people too?

[Kuchana]

Not to be snotty, but your response begs the question:

Are you speaking for the entire Iraqi people too?

Ok we're even :P At least I'm glad Saddam is out of power.

[SunWuKong]

Ok we're even :P At least I'm glad Saddam is out of power.

i don't think many Iraqis are crying for Saddam. although ironically, the US invasion made many Iraqis more loyal to Saddam. regardless, there have been studies that say that most Iraqis want US forces out. random innocent people are being killed over there. people didn't like Saddam, but at the same time that does not justify all the deaths that have occured in Iraq.

[AngryABCGirl]

i don't think many Iraqis are crying for Saddam. although ironically, the US invasion made many Iraqis more loyal to Saddam. regardless, there have been studies that say that most Iraqis want US forces out. random innocent people are being killed over there. people didn't like Saddam, but at the same time that does not justify all the deaths that have occured in Iraq.

A lot of the issue is at least under Saddam, people at least had the security of not having to be worried about being gunned down going to the supermarket even if their leader was a killer, at least most people had relative safety of having basic necessities. Ideals don't mean shit if you're not free to go outside without worrying about being run over by a tank or having something blown up on you, especially if caused by a foreign invader.

[SunWuKong]

A lot of the issue is at least under Saddam, people at least had the security of not having to be worried about being gunned down going to the supermarket even if their leader was a killer, at least most people had relative safety of having basic necessities. Ideals don't mean shit if you're not free to go outside without worrying about being run over by a tank or having something blown up on you, especially if caused by a foreign invader.


that's right.

and what's so hard to understand that the Iraqis, just like any other people, don't like it when foreign powers invade and destroy the lives of innocent people?

[hooligan]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/olympics/2004/writers/08/24/iraq.reax/index.html


ATHENS, Greece -- I had a feeling SI.com might ruffle some feathers in Washington with my story last week about Iraqi soccer players' displeasure with President Bush (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/olympics/2004/writers/08/19/iraq/index.html) after he used the Iraqi Olympic team in his latest re-election campaign ad.
(To see the ad, click here (http://www.georgewbush.com/News/MultiMedia/VideoPlayer.aspx?ID=984&T=5).)

But I can't say I expected former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) officials to publicly question the accuracy of the story, so let's set the record straight.

When asked about the SI.com piece on Monday's ESPN2 broadcast of Cold Pizza, former senior CPA official Don Eberly reiterated a quote from a Reuters interview of Mark Clark, a British consultant for the Iraqi Olympic Committee and himself a former CPA official.

Clark's statement, which was passed along by Eberly, was this: "It seems the story was engineered."

I don't know about you, but I take "engineered" to mean anything from "not on the level" (at best) to "fabricated" (at worst). Curious about Mark Clark's definition of the word, I called him on Monday.

Clark told me two interesting things: 1) When he commented on the SI.com story to Reuters he hadn't yet read it, and 2) he "didn't recall" using the word "engineered" in the Reuters interview. When I asked Reuters reporter Alastair Himmer, who quoted Clark, Himmer said, "He [Clark] told me straight up, mate. I'm not in the business of making up quotes."

If Clark did use the term engineered, then he's simply wrong. The two Iraqi players I interviewed, Salih Sadir and Ahmed Manajid, were asked simple questions. (The interview is on audio tape.) One of them was: "President Bush has included the Iraqi Olympic team in his latest campaign advertisements. How do you feel about that?"

The players answered the question -- no more, no less.

Clark also told Reuters, "it is possible something was lost in translation" in the SI.com story.

Well, no it isn't. On Tuesday, I played the tape of my original interviews (and the accompanying translations) for Chawki Rayess, an Arabic/English interpreter working for Olympic organizers in Athens. Rayess, a member of the respected International Association of Conference Interpreters, confirmed as accurate the following:

From Sadir: "Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign. He can find another way to advertise himself."

And from Manajid: "How will [Bush] meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes."

Then again, I already knew that the original translations were made in precise language, hardly a sign of confusion. If Clark and Eberly wish, I would be happy to provide them a copy of the tape. Until then, let's keep following the Iraqi soccer team's march to a possible bronze medal -- in my mind the best story of these Olympics.
it's fake! no way, it's not you douche.

[SunWuKong]

hah! that's sort of like how Rumsfeld straight out says that everything on Al Jazeera are lies. (although i do think it's biased.)

[hooligan]

hah! that's sort of like how Rumsfeld straight out says that everything on Al Jazeera are lies. (although i do think it's biased.)
i have heard that al jazeera has the most accurate news coming out of the arab states, but hey, that source could be biased as well.

[SunWuKong]

i have heard that al jazeera has the most accurate news coming out of the arab states, but hey, that source could be biased as well.

you should watch Control Room. it's a documentary about Al Jazeera.

in a war like this it's pretty much impossible to be unbiased. however, pictures of dead Iraqis and interviews of angry Iraqis don't lie. Al Jazeera does show pictures of dead US soldiers, too, as well as interview US soldiers, but emotions are running high and people at Al Jazeera are definitely anti-war.

something very telling was mentioned in that documentary though. the US says that terrorist groups are kidnapping civilians and putting them in harm's way, but where is the evidence? there are no pictures or videos of that being done, but there are plenty of pictures and videos of the destruction that US forces have caused in Iraq.

[Yeahman]

From what I gather, the feelings of the majority of Iraqis is that they didn't like Saddam and they don't like the US.
If Canada invaded the US, killing your family and destroying your house but in the process overthrew Bush and established universal healthcare and a more perfect republic, would you be happy under Canadian rule? Should we thank them?

And for the record, Iraqi deaths under US occupation is at about the same level it was during Saddam's rule.

[Mr.Lum]

I dont care what the Iraqi soccer player thinks.. Just like I don't care what an actor states when he is accepting his academy... I don't care what Shaq thinks.... these guys are there to play soccer, shut your damn yapper, play the game...

Stupid American.

This ad not only implies that Bush brought most of the world's democracies into being but also that the Iraqi soccer team has done well because we invaded and brought chaos upon their land. It's propaganda if you ask me. Brainwashing nonsense.