Iraqi
Olympic Soccer Team
Gives Bush the Boot
By Dave Zirin
22 August, 2004
CommonDreams.org
Sometimes
we are reminded that the Olympics can serve as an international platform
not only for flag waving and truck commercials, but also resistance.
In an incredible
piece by Grant Wahl on Sports Illustrated.com, the Iraqi Olympic Soccer
team has issued a stinging rebuke to George W. Bush's attempt to use
them as election year symbols.
Iraq's soccer squad
is perhaps the surprise of the entire Olympics, advancing to this weekend's
quarterfinals despite the war and occupation that has gripped their
country for the last 17 months. Yet amidst cheers and triumph, they
were infuriated to learn that Bush's brain, Karl Rove, had launched
campaign ads featuring their Olympic glory as a brilliant by-product
of the war on terror.
The commercial,
subtle as a blowtorch, begins with an image of the Afghani and Iraqi
flags with a voice over saying, "At this Olympics there will be
two more free nations -- and two fewer terrorist regimes."
Bush has also been
exploiting their exploits in stump speeches. Much more comfortable talking
sports than foreign policy or stem-cell research, Bush brayed with bravado
in Oregon, "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."
This has compelled
the Iraqi soccer team, at great personal risk, to respond. Mid-fielder
and team leader Salih Sadir told Sports Illustrated, "Iraq as a
team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign.
He can find another way to advertise himself."
Sadir has reason
to be upset. He was the star player for the professional soccer team
in Najaf. Najaf has in recent weeks been swamped by US troops and the
new Iraqi army in an attempt to uproot rebel cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr.
Thousands have died, each death close to Sadir's heart.
"I want the
violence and the war to go away from the city," said Sadir, "We
don't wish for the presence of Americans in our country. We want them
to go away."
Sadir's teammates
were less diplomatic.
Midfielder Ahmed
Manajid, told Wahl angrily, "How will [Bush] meet his god having
slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes."
Manajid understands
Sadir's pain because he is from another Iraqi city that has been in
a state of siege, Fallujah.
Manajid told Wahl
that his cousin Omar Jabbar al-Aziz, who was a resistance fighter, was
killed by the US, as were several of his friends. Manajid even said
that 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? Everyone [in Fallujah] has been
labeled a terrorist. These are all lies. Fallujah people are some of
the best people in Iraq."
Usually when there
is political unrest on Olympic teams, the coach tries to be a mitigating
force with the media. But not here and not now. Iraqi soccer coach Adnan
Hamad also went public to Sports Illustrated saying, "My problems
are not with the American people, They are with what America has done
in Iraq: destroy everything. The American army has killed so many people
in Iraq."
To be clear, Iraq's
team is not pining for former Olympic head Uday Hussein, notorious for
torturing athletes that under performed. Yet they don't feel their choice
has to be between Uday's way and the bloodbath that has been visited
upon their country. As Hamad said," What is freedom when I go to
the [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?
The ideas expressed
by the Iraqi soccer team are by all counts commonplace in Iraq yet find
little expression in the mainstream media here at home. It is critical
that their words find ears.
Without WMDs, Al-Qaeda
connections, and with an Iraqi populace that overwhelmingly views the
U.S. as occupiers and not liberators, what possible justification does
Bush - and Kerry - have for supporting this invasion that has cost hundreds
of billions of dollars and countless lives?
Take time this weekend
to root for the Iraqi soccer team. Their ascent will accompany a platform
for ideas that demand to be heard.
Dave Zirin can be
reached at [email protected]. His book "What's My Name Fool":
Sports and Resistance in the United States (Haymarket Books) comes out
spring 2005. To get his column every week, e-mail [email protected]