Posted on 08/24/2004 6:26:07 AM PDT by M 91 u2 K
Members of the Iraqi Olympic soccer team branded US President George Bush a criminal and called for American troops to pull out of the war-torn country.
Speaking after winning their group stage at the Games in Greece, one player said he would take up arms against US troops in his country.
And the team attacked Mr Bush for running re-election campaign adverts featuring the Iraqi team.
Iraq as a team does not want Mr Bush to use us for the presidential campaign, said midfielder Salih Sadir. He can find another way to advertise himself.
Sadir was angered at Mr Bushs adverts, which show 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.
We dont wish for the presence of Americans in our country. We want them to go away, said Sadir, aged 21, whose home town of Najaf has been battered by the war.
Another star player, Ahmed Manajid, aged 22, said of Mr Bush: How will he meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes.
Manajid, from Fallujah, said he would be fighting US troops right now if he were not at the Olympics.
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 labelled a terrorist. These are all lies. Fallujah people are some of the best people in Iraq.
In an interview with the US magazine Sports Illustrated, the team coach Adnan Hamad told of the ongoing violence in his homeland.
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. What is freedom when I go to the stadium and there are shootings on the road?
The team was glad that Iraqs former Olympic committee head Uday Hussein, who was responsible for the serial torture of Iraqi athletes, was no longer in power. He was killed in a firefight with US forces after the invasion.
A spokesman for Mr Bush defended the war on Iraq and the campaign adverts.
The ad simply talks about President Bushs optimism and how democracy has triumphed over terror, the spokesman said.
The Iraqi soccer team has been one of the sensations of the Games, winning its group, despite a 2-1 defeat to Morocco in its latest game.
The team will go on to play Australia in the quarter-finals on Sunday.
IMHO, that is exactly the real long-term battle we face.
I dont expect gratitude, but it would be nice if the people from the religion of peace would stop wishing us death and destruction.
Go Australi! The Australians have been our allies not Iraq. This Iraq soccer team sounds like a bunch of prima donnas and the success is making their heads swell. They need to get knocked down a notch
Yes..but it's doable...look..my two daughters are now happily married, starting off on life..I still cringe at family trips back when they were earyl teens, and they insisted on RAP music on the radio..all things are indeed possible..
I hope Australia destroys them.
I have chosen to stop looking at the war from the perspective of the good it has done for Iraqis. The thought of our young men continuing to die for many that would like to see us all dead is intolerable to me.
Instead, I am looking at it from the perspective of how it has been good for the United States. We know there were WMD's in Iraq (which are probably in Syria now) and we also know that having a strong presence in that area will be beneficial to American security over the long term.
Ultimately, the safety and well-being of Americans, my daughter specifically, matter far more to me than the gratitude or lack of gratitude from the people of Iraq.
It's like a freed slave saying, "That damned Abe Lincoln destroyed my homeland!"
I don't put too much stock in these athlete's public words right now. Baghdad (or any part of Iraq) isn't Muncie Indiana, and probably won't be for quite a while.
You are exactly right.
Maybe Jayson Blair is working for Ireland on-Line now. Calling in his stories from the local pub.
How would you feel towards an occupying force in your home town? Ingrates, indeed.
I am continually reminded of George Washington's warning against foreign entanglements.
The ignorance and bigotry of these people is unfathomable unless you assume they believe they should prevail because of their stupid, backwards perverted beliefs.
Where are Uday and Qday when you need them?
I imagine the night before some of these athletes got phone calls from home telling them to publicly condemn Bush or they would never see their parents/siblings/friends alive again. Let's not jump to the conclusion that the opinions expressed are their own - Iraq is still a lawless state and the only man free to truly express his opinion is one with no family at home and nothing to lose. Even if the threats are unlikely to be carried out, living under Saddam for thirty years would make anyone jumpy, and easy to influence.
And they're still saying it to the party of Lincoln.
It doesn't pay to fight for someone's freedom, who won't fight for it themself. In the future the US should only support ONGOING revolutions for freedom, initiated by the country's citizenry. If the citizens can't be bothered to fight, neither should we.
"Manajid, from Fallujah, said he would be fighting US troops right now if he were not at the Olympics."
Don't worry dickhead, the olympics are over soon!!! Feel free to take up arms so one of our boys who's been saving all of your asses this whole time can put one right between your eyes!!!!!
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