Posted on 08/19/2004 10:37:51 AM PDT by HawkeyeLonewolf
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."
(Excerpt) Read more at sportsillustrated.cnn.com ...
Maybe this guy thinks Uday is still alive and wil throw him into the Iron Maiden?
Well, that clears up the question of his priorities
Would you like somebody promoting themselves with your image, without your permission?
If the US had complete control of Iraq, and if Iraqi civilians weren't being slaughtered by "freedom fighters" on a weekly basis, then I'd think they (the soccer team) were a bunch of ungrateful SOBs.
Instead, to me, they sounded scared and spoke out very loudly, much like the old east European/Soviet athletes/representatives used to, when confronted with something that was better than what they used to have.
Enjoy, Grant. You've alienated a good percentage of your small audience. Bravo.
When folks were cheering these guys, I was admonished for saying it's too bad they couldn't be fighting for their freedom, while our guys were dying for it, instead of playing ball.
This jerk sure makes me feel vindicated. ;)
Maybe this is a case of the team coach just playing it cool, they must be careful of the image they present or they could be threatened themselves.
In my mind, they owe a lot of their success to their former German coach;
Note:
" While the beatings have stopped, life in Iraq remains too much of an adventure. So much so that in June, Bernd Stange, a German who coached the Iraqis to their first Olympic berth, resigned his position. He deemed it too dangerous after his personal driver was shot. Stange has been replaced by Adnan Hamad, an Iraqi.
"It doesn't make sense to coach the national team by telephone," Stange told the Associated Press. "I look like a westerner. I could be a target for them [terrorists]." - http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports/109221676435980.xml
He doesn't need you, ungrateful raghead.
The Kerry campaign provides enough campaign opportunities for Mr. Bush.
I have posted this elsewhere. I started getting loast awhile back with all the beheadings, so I made a spreadsheet and went searching for them. I stopped after I came across this statistic: Uday Hussein had 36 people beheaded in ONE DAY. I just got this image in my head, and couldn't go on.
Sorry. getting lost.
Trust a Time Warner company to dig up that soundbite and broadcast it. I hope one of the benefits of four more years of GWB is that Time Warner's stock remains flat due to
(the ongoing :) Government's investigation.
Too damn bad, Sadir, a lot of good people have died so you could compete without fear of being tortured upon your return home.
even if it's Sports Illustrated.
$$$$$$
Especially Sports Illustrated! Remember the hatchet job an SI reporter did on John Rocker, when he dared to make un-PC comments.
Does this mean the Sports Illustrated curse is in effect, and they'll lose to Australia, or does that only extend to athletes and teams that have their picture on the magazine's cover?
I've been reading about this off and on for days. From what I have read, the ad does nothing more than show the iraqi and afghani flags and state something along the lines of "this year two more free countries are participating in the olympics."
Has anyone seen any of these ads?? Are they what I think??
If so, I would wager that someone has misrepresented the ads to the Iraqi team. (I CAN understand that some of the players may not feel comfortable having thier images used without thier permission to support someone they may not) Since we claim we are setting up a "democratic" system in Iarq and that our values (freedom of speech etc...) are being imposed - I guess we have to accept that not all of the freed Iraqis will feel "grateful".
This whole contoversy "smells" of left wing media tricks . . .
Reporter gather facts and present them to others to decide what the facts mean, journalists have an agenda and will force fit facts to support it. If you noticed they stopped calling themselves reporters during the Viet Nam War.
I have seen a snip of the ad that was shown on a news show. President and Mrs Bush mention that in 1972 there were 40 democracies participating in the Olympics, and today there are [over 100] including 2 new ones Iraq and Afghanistan. That's all. His Saturday morning radio address on the opening day of the Olympics also praised the competitors from these countries, newly freed from tyranny.
The Iraqi players are being used by anti-Bush commentators, I am sure.
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