Yesterday, the Iraqi soccer team beat the Saudi Arabia team to win the Asian Cup in overtime play. I’m no soccer fan — a bunch of guys runnin’ back and forth for hours to come up with a 1-0 overtime score really doesn’t do much for this ol’ Okie — but I do know that the rest of the world outside the US is cu-cu-for-coco-puffs over the sport, and this win is a big one for Iraq. For the first time since the ousting of Saddam, the three groups, Sunni, Shia and the Kurds have something that brings them together instead of tearing them apart. Over at Hugh Hewitt’s Townhall.com blog, Generalissimo compares this win with that of the 1980 USA hockey team’s win over the Soviets and what it seems to mean to the common Iraqi.

We may not know if, or how much, a win like this may help unify Iraq for some time, but it’s hard to believe at this point that it can hurt. The Iraqi team consisted of Shiia, Sunni and Kurdish players, and a lot of what we have seen and heard today from Iraqis as they celebrated was that tonight, they aren’t ‘insert sect here,’ they’re Iraqis. Let’s hope that nationalism seed planted today takes root. Naturally, there were instances of rioting, shooting guns in the air, and other signs of the ugly side of high-profile sporting wins that some will try and use to taint the team’s accomplishment with, but tonight, hope is alive in Iraq, something that has been rare to come by since the rise of the insurgency.

“Hope is alive in Iraq[.]” That should definitely be film-at-eleven worthy, don’t ya think? Michelle Malkin certainly thinks so. Which brings me to the subject of this post, the LA Times‘ coverage of the win. To be fair, they did a pretty good job with the article, Victory in Iraq: Soccer team takes Asian Cup, although I can imagine the intense gritting of teeth that went on at the keyboard as the LAT writer had to peck out these words:

“This is a gift to the united Iraqi people, to the different spectrums of the Iraqi people[.]”

{…}

“These players helped us keep our faces up,” Hussein, 43, said. “They showed us what the real Iraq is and how we can work hard to be something. These players are what the Iraqis are.”

{…}

“This team has united the sons of Iraq from the south to the north,” he said.

Actually, scratch that. If I thought that they had done a “pretty good job” of covering this event I wouldn’t be writing this post. Surprisingly, Reuters shows how to do it right with their Iraq ride wave of support to lift Asian Cup. To show the impact of such a win on a war-torn country like Iraq, you can’t ignore what is going on in the players’ homeland, and Reuters certainly doesn’t overlook or sugar coat it.

None of the Iraqi players have been untouched by the war and although they have tried to mask their grief, there were constant reminders of the sectarian violence at home.

At least three players in the squad have lost relatives in the past two months and the players wore black armbands during the final in memory of the 50 people killed by suicide bombers after Wednesday’s semi-final win over South Korea.

Mahmoud, who was named best player of the tournament, said one of the tragedies of the war was that the team would not even be able to return to Iraq with the trophy.

“I wish we could go, but you just don’t know who will kill you,” he said.

However, the bulk of the Reuter’s piece was about the team, the game, the unifying effects of the win, concluding with this:

FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who was at the Gelora Bung National Stadium for the final, said Iraq’s achievement had inspired millions and was proof of sport’s unique power to unite people in the most desperate circumstances.

Now, let’s look again at the LAT piece. Let’s see, first half of the piece is OK, a bit o’ unity, a bit o’ the efforts to make sure the game was available to watch, a bit too much on celebratory gunfire. Second half, the killing by police of a car bomber trying to crash a post-game celebration, mention of the July 25th bombing after the win over South Korea, more gunfire info, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki announcing that Iraq would reward the players with cash, which is cool . . . damn, maybe the LAT did this pretty well after all?

Not so fast there, Okie.

What was it that caused me to question their motive? What was it that soured my LAT read on the celebrations and the feelings of unity caused by this amazing win? What. Could. It. Be? Maybe the way that the LAT editors decided that the piece should end? Consider again how Reuters wrapped up their piece: “Iraq’s achievement had inspired millions and was proof of sport’s unique power to unite people in the most desperate circumstances.” Wow! Strong and positive.

Here’s how the LAT ended theirs — remember, this is a story on a team that against almost all odds has won an international soccer tournament against a stronger rival. It’s not a piece on the war.

Meanwhile today, Baghdad police recovered 20 bodies found dumped in the streets.

The U.S. military reported that an American solider was killed north of Baghdad, bringing the total number of U.S. troops killed since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to 3,648, according to iCasualties.org, a website that monitors deaths in Iraq.

Thanks, LAT. Can’t have a piece about Iraq without the body counts, now can we? Just wouldn’t be the progressive way to view the world. Maybe this is just the LAT’s version of being fair & balanced. Maybe anything that interferes with their agenda journalism must be shat upon.

However, over at Iraq the Model you’ll find the joy and indomitable Iraqi spirit that the LAT just can’t seem to report without attaching the obligatory downer:

Today is definitely the happiest day for Iraqis in years. Tears of joy mixed with prayers for hope on the faces of millions of Iraqis…Words truly fail me and I can’t describe the feeling so please pardon me if the post doesn’t sound coherent; I hear the cheering and music outside although the bullets of celebration keep falling on the ground and roofs here and there. But no one seems to worry about that, the moment is so great that fear has no place in the hearts of the millions of fans, neither from bullets nor from crazy suicide bombers who tried to kill our joy last week.

Our players, tonight our heroes, learned that only with team work they had a chance to win.
May our politicians learn from the players and from the fans who are painting a glorious image of unity and national pride, and let the terrorists know that nothing can kill the spirit of the sons of the immortal Tigris and Euphrates.

The fear is gone, the curfew is ignored, tonight Iraq knows only joy…

Maybe it’s only for a brief moment, maybe today or tomorrow this will only be a memory that will seem like the most ephemeral of dreams — but today, Iraq the Model is tellin’ it like it is . . .

Think anyone at the Lost Angeles Times is paying attention? Nah, me neither.

Technorati Tags: Iraqi soccer team, Asian Cup, LA Times

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