Iraq scores!!
July 29, 2007 12:09 PM   Subscribe

Iraq wins! When everything that could go wrong goes wrong, it is awesome to see that something like this happened.
posted by dov3 (46 comments total)
 
Yeah, but only because they were getting weapons from Iran.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:17 PM on July 29, 2007 [1 favorite]


Odd that the article doesn't mention what happened during the celebrations of the last win by the Iraq team. Kinda puts a damper on my excitement at this one. Happy for the team and those who were rooting for it, though.
posted by mediareport at 12:23 PM on July 29, 2007


Soccer?!? Is this worthy of the Blue?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:31 PM on July 29, 2007




I was just talking to my friend in Egypt and he said that everyone in the entire Middle East was watching the game, hoping the Iraq team would win to give Iraqis some rare happiness. Apparently even many people in Saudi Arabia were rooting for Iraq. The win was considered symbolic to people, basically representing poor & victimized people triumphing over rich & powerful ones. Even though Egypt played a game today, people watched Iraq's win instead & everyone screamed like when the Red Sox won.
posted by miss lynnster at 12:36 PM on July 29, 2007




Iraqi football 1 Suicide bombers 50.

What a mess.
posted by salishsea at 12:39 PM on July 29, 2007


Why do people celebrate by firing guns? Can't they just use confetti?
posted by dov3 at 12:42 PM on July 29, 2007


Alvy, we may not be into soccer, but trust me this game was a big symbolic deal in the muslim world today. Culturally and politically, this is an important world event even if you don't like the sport.

And unfortunately, I don't see how those four deaths are all that unexpected or rare. Sports fans around the world are quite often violent idiots. The male ones anyhow. Christian or muslim, out-of-control testosterone is out-of-control testosterone.
posted by miss lynnster at 12:52 PM on July 29, 2007


miss lynster, Alvy's comment was a response to dov3's ridiculous shitting in the thread just below this one.
posted by mediareport at 12:56 PM on July 29, 2007


Don't they blow up any gathering of people? I mean, it's not like they targeted the football fans.
posted by smackfu at 12:56 PM on July 29, 2007


I was just teasing dov3, mL. While I'm not a huge fan of soccer - or "ƒũtbÖl", as I understand it's called in the Non-NA part of the world - here's hoping this does contribute to some positive changes in Iraq.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:04 PM on July 29, 2007


Mediareport, I think there is a big difference between a link of an actor cooking a chicken and the symbolic tryumph of a nation that has only seeing crap for the past 4 years.
posted by dov3 at 1:05 PM on July 29, 2007


Ahhh. Okay. Got it. I read this thread first.
posted by miss lynnster at 1:15 PM on July 29, 2007


Ahhh, if only we could get Christopher Walken to bring peace to Iraq by baking them all chicken. And pear cookies.
posted by miss lynnster at 1:16 PM on July 29, 2007


I was actually thinking about this today and wondering if other teams would not push as hard to give Iraq a good chance at gaining some prestige and provide some point of national pride. The country really needs a unifying event and... well perhaps football would be it, at least in the short term.
posted by edgeways at 1:43 PM on July 29, 2007


"...everyone screamed like when the Red Sox won..."

I'm really not a sports fan, but for some strange reason, Iraq winning a soccer game against Saudi Arabia just gives me a warm happy feeling inside... or maybe I've been taking too much Benadryl... it's allergy season. =)
posted by ZachsMind at 1:58 PM on July 29, 2007


Screw it. This is great news.
posted by MarshallPoe at 2:08 PM on July 29, 2007


Well this made the whole thing worth it.
posted by empath at 2:11 PM on July 29, 2007 [3 favorites]


Who gets to keep the trophy?
posted by srboisvert at 2:18 PM on July 29, 2007


This is a good thing. For football and for Iraqis.
posted by dopamine at 2:21 PM on July 29, 2007


Totally jarring to even read the first paragraph - Mahmoud, Arab, Iraq, win, settled...the photo of somebody celebrating something on the right seems totally out of place at first...very sad that it felt so strange. I can't remember the last verifiable, untampered good news story featuring the word Iraq.
posted by fire&wings at 3:03 PM on July 29, 2007


So chances are, they could quite possibly qualify for South Africa. I'm looking forward to the draw for that!
posted by popcassady at 3:12 PM on July 29, 2007


GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by snsranch at 3:53 PM on July 29, 2007 [1 favorite]


Why do people celebrate by firing guns? Can't they just use confetti?

I think they call it "lead confetti".
posted by Mr_Zero at 3:54 PM on July 29, 2007


awesome.
posted by Frasermoo at 4:17 PM on July 29, 2007


A tiny piece of poetic justice really, considering that the Iraqis are suffering so much now, largely as a result of the actions of a handful of Saudis back in 2001.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:45 PM on July 29, 2007 [2 favorites]


See, the surge IS working!
posted by briank at 5:45 PM on July 29, 2007


These poor people needed some little light. I am not sure that it is enough but, yeah, this is significant. YEAH IRAQ!!!! No matter what your stripe (well, unless you are Saudi) this has got to be a good thing.
posted by caddis at 6:04 PM on July 29, 2007


dov3, the point is that you're supposed to just move on if you don't resonate with a post, not attack it. HTH.
posted by mediareport at 6:12 PM on July 29, 2007


What most of the stories have left out is that due to legislation by the 'Iraqi' Parliament 85% of the Asian Cup is now the property of Haliburton.
posted by sien at 6:38 PM on July 29, 2007 [1 favorite]


What really struck a chord with me was how, as miss lynnster mentioned, EVERYONE was routing for the Iraq team. (Just quit fucking sending your fuckin' losers with their arsenals of bombs and shit!) Ok? Thank you.

I actually spent some time in Iraq a long time ago. They were good peeps. Much like the peeps in every other country I've ever visited.

I'm not down with the so-called "war" against terrorists. Especially since they don't even exist over there. In reality they are factional freedom fighters.

Go Iraq!!!! I hope this achievement brings them some level of joy or happiness.
posted by snsranch at 7:02 PM on July 29, 2007 [1 favorite]


Hmmmm, you think Philadelphia could transfer some of the tragedy karma from all the murders into a Super Bowl victory for the Eagles?
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:02 PM on July 29, 2007


Heartwarming story, but I found the picture in the Times link of the guys carrying a coffin with the images of the Saudi soccer team strange and sad. Haven't there been enough burials in Baghdad?
posted by stargell at 7:37 PM on July 29, 2007


Well, I'd imagine Iraqis are no doubt completely desensitized to morbidity at this point...
posted by miss lynnster at 7:54 PM on July 29, 2007


...perhaps, in the sense that a coffin being borne along on peoples' shoulders just seems to be a necessary part of every large gathering of people in the streets...
posted by UbuRoivas at 9:34 PM on July 29, 2007


I have a feeling that my children will talk about the War on Terror the way I talk about the Cold War.... as in "it was a scam"....

I am glad that this soccer team probably delivered one day of joy to everyday Iraqis, who are living terrible lives.

I would be even happier if the US and other countries leave Iraq, that NATO directs proper resources to the Afghan War so it can be settled, and we see a meaningful "regime change" in western countries so that the process of proving the "War on Terror" was orchestrated by a group of energy interests and maintained by a bunch of war profiters begins before the players grow too old to face justice.

The other story of this game, is that this group of National heros can't return to Iraq because of the target they would become.

If "security" is ultimately deemed to be a problem in Western Liberal Democracies we probably have to face the reality that we are not going to effectively be able to transfer the front lines on the war on terror from our countries to places like Iraq and Afghanistan without generating a lot of death and misery in those places that has just been feeding and growing the terror networks and not providing us any dependable allies. Winning the war on terror as it is being fought now, ignores the fact that Germany and Japan were only recast as stable, capitalist countries after they had edured a level of violence and destruction which was unseen at any other time in history followed by massive investment - since most people consider escalating the level of violence morally unacceptable the war is unwinnable. The only sane thing to do is let the Iraqis fight their civil war, and deal with the outcomes and hope that little joys like soccer matches and victory celebrations for sports teams become a part of everyday life for Iraqi people again.
posted by Deep Dish at 11:07 PM on July 29, 2007


Am I the only one thinking this victory might have been cooked up?
posted by theemperorhasnoclotheson at 12:22 AM on July 30, 2007


Football teams aren't big on losing. So probably.

I mean, this losing goal in the 2002 World Cup got the player murdered.
posted by miss lynnster at 6:33 AM on July 30, 2007


Am I the only one thinking this victory might have been cooked up?

In a PSYOP kind of way? Soccer is an extremely popular sport in Iraq. There have been many occasions where soccer balls and jerseys were handed out to Iraqi children as part of a PSYOP campaign to help ease relations with Iraqi citizens. But that being said even though a Iraqi victory in soccer may go a long way in helping shape the perceptions of the nation...I find it hard seeing the victory as staged.
posted by samsara at 7:31 AM on July 30, 2007


<humor style="type: gallows; delivery: deadpan;">Excellent! This will finally fix everything.</humor>
posted by rusty at 8:55 AM on July 30, 2007


uhhh, lynnster, that was the '94 cup. i remember it distinctly, and also, the youtube title says 94.

</nitpick>
posted by acid freaking on the kitty at 8:56 AM on July 30, 2007




Soccer is certainly big in Iraq. Saddam's son, Uday, used to torture team members that didn't perform to his standards. So the US (sorry, that should read: Coalition) provisional governor should have showed some recognition for the 2003 Iraqi team accomplishments, or so said their German trainer:
"In a country without any working cinemas or theaters, where people are afraid to go out at night, the successes of our team are a matter of huge national pride," Bernd Stange recently told an Associated Press reporter, Slobodan Lekic. "That's important for the return of normalcy. Doesn't the coalition, doesn't Paul Bremer understand this?"
Bremer got the message and, the following spring, when the national team qualified for the Olympics, he insisted on honoring the athletes. There was a big ceremony at the Baghdad stadium -- of course, for security reasons, no Iraqis were allowed to attend. What might have been a great unifying celebration was turned into "an antiseptic media event", "another missed opportunity." Hear Bremer's empty words echo in the empty stadium.
posted by CCBC at 4:10 PM on July 30, 2007




Yeah well that's what martinis do to a girl.
posted by miss lynnster at 5:45 PM on August 2, 2007


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