Photos: Iraqis and Americans celebrate Iraq’s Asia Cup win Updated with video
posted at 9:51 am on August 10, 2007 by Bryan
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These photos are from FOB Justice in Baghdad. The day that the Iraqi national soccer team played Saudi Arabia for the Asia Cup title, July 29, Justice welcomed Iraqis into the base, and well, I’ll just let LTC Steve Miska tell the story:
We recently hosted a soccer party during the final game of the Asian World Cup which Iraq won! The crowd at FOB Justice was nuts in our newly remodeled lounge on the roof. We had Arwa Damon with CNN filming it all live. Everyone involved had a great time. We then went downtown into Khadamiyah and the city had erupted in celebration. The game and parties afterward were a tremendous expression of national unity.
The photo of one guy hugging another who is crying is priceless. It portrays the whole range of emotions that we were all feeling together. The game was an awesome time and putting together the party was one of our most important experiences, demonstrating that we walk hand in hand with our Iraqi partners.
Update: I missed this when it first hit the net, but CNN’s Arwa Damon produced a great story about the party at Justice and out in Khadimiyah. Click on the image to watch.
And LTC Miska adds:
CNN’s Arwa Damon did a fantastic job with the coverage. I don’t think the story ran as much on US channels, as Americans don’t seem to care about football like the rest of the world. That being said, CNN International showed both the game party and our trip downtown amongst throngs of raving maniacs who were dancing in the streets and going nuts. It was an awesome experience made all the more poignant by Arwa’s coverage. She also followed up with an immigration story which began airing today on CNN International website. It should hit the airwaves shortly and is an extremely important attempt to highlight policy shortcomings that need to be fixed to help our Iraqi allies in this fight.
Both of my interactions with CNN (Arwa Damon and Michael Holmes) have been extremely positive. Both stories were positive news coverage, and the reporters themselves are tremendous professionals that respect our relationship and produce balanced perspectives. Sometimes the truth is hard, but I am OK with that. If someone came to visit with an agenda, I would be wary - regardless if liberal or conservative. This is just my plain old infantry opinion.
Regards,
Steve
Sounds like wisdom to me.
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So how long before libs put soccer into the catagory they feel football is in.
- The Cat
P.S. Yes, I know everywhere else calls soccer football anyway.
MirCat on August 10, 2007 at 10:05 AM
” GOOOOOAAAAL ” In more ways than one.
Congratulations to the Team and the Country.
Texyank on August 10, 2007 at 10:06 AM
Apparently an informant was on the invitation list.
craig on August 10, 2007 at 10:14 AM
No, but I did blur one face for security reasons.
Bryan on August 10, 2007 at 10:15 AM
Congrats to the team and the people of Iraq on the win, political comments made by team members notwithstanding.
Separate from this, but not totally… How long until American soccer nerds start trying to insist that their sport be called “football”? How long until the term ’soccer’ is thrown into the politically incorrect lexicon? I demand the right to raise my children in a non-soccer-friendly country, and this great nation is the last bastion of sanity on this planet!
I have a dream… that one day all the little American soccer nerds… will walk hand in hand with some real athletes… the Little Leaguers… where together they can participate in a real sport… one in which you can use your hands… one in which the entire team wears the same uniform… one that committed capitalists actually care about.
Thank you, and God bless America!
Kevin from Ohio in V on August 10, 2007 at 10:20 AM
When you kickbox, then we’ll talk.
- The Cat
MirCat on August 10, 2007 at 10:28 AM
I love these jubilant images. Keep ‘em coming!!
RushBaby on August 10, 2007 at 10:34 AM
I can’t wait to see how their hockey team does in the O’s! If Jamaica can win the bobsled comp., then the Iraqis can at least PLAY hockey. Think what a great movie THAT would be!
Tony737 on August 10, 2007 at 10:44 AM
Let’s just call it fütball and leave it at that.
Harpoon on August 10, 2007 at 10:49 AM
Why, is “Queerball” already taken?
Hollowpoint on August 10, 2007 at 11:45 AM
Genuine unity, genuinely heartwarming. It’s always good to see some of the Iraqi good guys getting together with americans, it shows that Iraq does have plenty of good guys. My heart goes out to them.
Aylios on August 10, 2007 at 12:36 PM
In fact I’m getting all choked up on that photo myself.
Aylios on August 10, 2007 at 12:37 PM
It’s too bad the lame drive-by media either downplayed all of this, or chose to focus on the negative….not that that is a surprise.
The media, while hanging in the Green Zone, should be asking the Iraqi politicians why a soccer team can show some unity for their country yet the politicians cannot.
91Veteran on August 10, 2007 at 1:06 PM
Glad to see my jab at Euroball was taken as it should have been. I’ll concede to futbol, as long as we will hereafter refer to a lib as having put his or her fut in his or her mouth, eschewing use of the word “foot” which has developed an extremely positive connotation when used to refer the great American sport of “football.”
Kevin from Ohio in V on August 10, 2007 at 1:09 PM
It’s AllahP, right? No, I kid. What they did was very important, though.
amerpundit on August 10, 2007 at 1:10 PM
Soccer is a slang word as in Association Football. People call it football because that’s what it’s called. There’s also Gaelic football which is involves the hands and is more physical than Association football. It’s not as if people are going to get confused and the Baltimore Ravens will wind up playing Manchester United by accident.
aengus on August 10, 2007 at 1:53 PM
91Veteran : “The media, while hanging in the Green Zone, ….”
The single cause of the “slippage” in America’s will to fight is caused by the media. That are Al Qaeda’s “Fifth Column” in this war and they have been working overtime in trying to force America to surrender.
In WWI and WWII, the media was kept on a very short leash, and given the overt attempts by the media to sabotage the war effort, if it were up to me, I’d ban ALL of them from the green zone and ONLY allow reporters in country if and only if they are embedded with the troops.
The fact that the media deliberately rely upon Al Qaeda and Ba’athist “stringers” to supply “news,” coupled with their liberal, anti-military attitudes and behavior is reason enough to declare the whole nest of them persona-non-grata and make them leave.
My 2 cents.
georgej on August 10, 2007 at 2:49 PM
Brian from Ohio, since when is running a 10K over the course of 90 minutes while people try to break my ankles, shoulder charge, elbow, kick, headbutt, and generally hurt me something that sissies do? Oh, yeah, I have to be able to do the same thing to other people without getting caught. And there’s this soccer ball that me and my teammates are trying to manipulate into a goal.
For whatever reason, whenever I hear Americans talk about football (soccer) being wimpier than, say, football in the American capacity, I ask who wears more pads and takes a break every ten seconds? Then the complaints of Americans just seems like the buzzing of the uncoordinated and out of shape…
And great show to the Iraqi football side. They showed a great deal of heart during the tournament, and I hope they they make an appearance next year at the World Cup.
Spc Steve on August 10, 2007 at 3:23 PM
I don’t care what “soccer” is slang for. Perhaps you didn’t read my entire post. You probably didn’t read my first one either. They were jokes. Thank you, soccer and futbol fans of the world.
May I remind you that every American football play would result in 15-20 “red cards”? That’s why you wear pads. That’s why after 5-10 years in the NFL, a lot of 35 year old guys hobble for the rest of their lives on canes or roll around in wheelchairs.
I’m not denying the validity of soccer as a sport. I rather enjoy it, actually. I’m just teasing you soccer nerds a bit, all in good fun. You all took it way too seriously. Lighten up.
Kevin from Ohio in V on August 10, 2007 at 3:36 PM
Heh, botched joke.
- The Cat
MirCat on August 10, 2007 at 5:07 PM