Posted on 07/29/2007 4:58:46 PM PDT by SirLinksalot
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Younis Mahmoud's victory celebrations were tempered by reality.
Mahmoud scored the winning goal in Iraq's 1-0 Asian Cup final win over Saudi Arabia today, yet he feared for his life if he went home to celebrate the stunning victory.
"I don't want the Iraqi people to be angry with me," he said. But, "If I go back with the team, anybody could kill me or try to hurt me.
"One of my closest friends, they (the authorities) came to arrest him, and for one year neither me nor his family knew where he is."
The Iraqi captain — who like the rest of the team wore a black arm band to remember the dozens killed by carbombers following the side's semifinal victory over South Korea on Wednesday — said the American presence in his homeland was a "problem."
"I want America to go out," he said. "Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but out. I wish the American people didn't invade Iraq and hopefully it will be over soon."
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Fine with me. Bring our troops home. Close the borders. Have our troops defend our homeland. Screw Iraq.
This will be front page news for weeks since it fits the desires of the media. Having said that, he could have gone home a loser to Uday and company had the Americans not given him the opporunity to be in the games in the first place. Ungrateful bastard.
Missing barf alert.
Dumbass is a Sunni... Americans pulled out right now, the Shia will get the pound of flesh they’ve been wanting for for a long time.
Too bad he had to give the AP the sound bites they need for their propaganda.
This old media story will be ripped apart.
He probably thinks saying this will stand him in good graces with the terrorists. I’d like to see Iraq vote on the US leaving, as Tommy Thompson has said. That would be telling.
Guess he never had the pleasure of having to kick Uday’s cement soccerball. Even sunni players got to experience that pleasure for not playing up to Uday’s expectations.
I'm always a little skeptical of what Iraqis say to the media.
Yeah, we should have left Uday in charge of the soccer team so he could torture your whinny ass and kill your family members if you did not win...
I always more skeptical of what the media writes about what they think they heard.
Are you being channeled by Charles Lindbergh?
Well, if he’d lost and saddam was still in power, his son would have tortured the guy or cut off something. Would he rather have saddam back? NOT.
Dummy should have thought about this before he decided to win.
Iraq's soccer stadiums will become killing fields...ala Chile in years gone by.
With their win, the Iraqi players painted big huge targets on their backs. I’m not sure I’d be real excited to return home if I were the on that team, either. They know the barbarians will be gunning for them, because they represent a “normal” Iraq.
I’m also sympathetic to his statement that he’d like Americans to leave Iraq. I’d like us to leave, too, but not if that departure means a) a bloodbath and b) Iran moving in and taking over Iraq’s oil fields. Those two points seem to me to be the difference between a responsible position on Iraq and the one taken by almost every Democrat except Lieberman.
Finally, he’s being quoted by the International Herald Tribune (read: New York Times). So everything written in the rag needs to be read in that virulently anti-Bush context.
Bottom line: I’ll cut the Iraqi soccer players some slack, personally.
I agree with you. He has some major meetin & greetin to do and he can’t very well do that as as supporter of the US.
I agree. The time is long gone for the Iraqi people to prove themselves in wanting a self-governing nation. We declare victory, turn the keys over, and get out.
And IHT is not exactly always a reliable source.
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