From a Sports Ilustrated Article entitled Iraqi soccer players angered by Bush campaign ads
Afterward, Sadir had a message for U.S. president George W. Bush, who is using the Iraqi Olympic team in his latest re-election campaign advertisements. In those spots, the flags of Iraq and Afghanistan appear as a narrator says, "At this Olympics there will be two more free nations -- and two fewer terrorist regimes."
(To see the ad, click here.)
"Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign," Sadir told SI.com through a translator, speaking calmly and directly. "He can find another way to advertise himself."
Ahmed Manajid, who played as a midfielder on Wednesday, had an even stronger response when asked about Bush's TV advertisement. "How will he meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women?" Manajid told me. "He has committed so many crimes."
"The ad simply talks about President Bush's optimism and how democracy has triumphed over terror," said Scott Stanzel, a spokesperson for Bush's campaign. "Twenty-five million people in Iraq are free as a result of the actions of the coalition."
To a man, members of the Iraqi Olympic delegation say they are glad that former Olympic committee head Uday Hussein, who was responsible for the serial torture of Iraqi athletes and was killed four months after the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003, is no longer in power.
But they also find it offensive that Bush is using Iraq for his own gain when they do not support his administration's actions. "My problems are not with the American people," says Iraqi soccer coach Adnan Hamad. "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 [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?"
I find the We had to destroy the village to save it mentality an interesting and perhaps uniquely American perspective. Based on some of the comments in my post So Why Are You Voting For George W Bush? it seems there are still people who feel the financial and human cost of the war in Iraq was worth it both for selfish reasons (it distracts Islamic terrorists who'd probably be focusing on attacking the American mainland) and for the fact that the war has made the Iraqi people "better off" despite the fact that many of them have gone from living in a relatively stable country to living in a bombed out warzone. This is a very interesting peek into the American psyche.
UPDATE: Based on some of the comments to this entry I decided to further clarify what I find so interesting. After it became clear that there were no WMDs in Iraq or strong ties to Al-Qaeda and 9/11 the reaction to this from the Bush Administration and American people could have been regret and sorrow (”I can't believe we killed thousands of civilians and spent billions of dollars without just cause”). Instead the Bush administration and certain portions of the American public instead have have reacted by stating that this invasion is actually good for Iraq and America should be commended for rescuing the Iraqi people. The reaction and the mentality behind it aren't what I'd expect after such a significant folly. Of course, history will be the judge of whether the current belief that America's interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq will improve the lives of the people of these nations for future generations.