NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, 1 September 2004 — Some Iraqis, now “liberated” and “free,” want to speak their minds. But they had to go all the way to the Olympics in Athens, Greece to do it.
From the world’s purportedly newest democracy, to the world’s acknowledged oldest.
But first, they had to kick a ball around.
Why? Because the world loves sport more than truth.
Then, they were taunted for not wearing black armbands in memory of Italian Enzo Baldoni — copywriter, journalist, and self-described “war tourist.”
The “Islamic Army” in Iraq had kidnapped and threatened to murder Baldoni if Italy did not withdraw its troops from Iraq within 48 hours. Berlusconi’s government initially refused, but early Thursday suddenly backtracked, offering to withdraw if Iraq’s interim government so requested. “We will respect the free will of the Iraqi government,” Foreign Minister Franco Frattini hurriedly announced.
Did Italy already know that Baldoni was dead?
Italy respects “the free will of the Iraqi government.” But what about respecting the free will of the Iraqi people?
Nobody is falling for the neocon charade that because Paul Bremer, like Elvis, has “left the building,” the Iraqi people are now in charge of their own government.
But in the whole of Iraq, there is not a person genuinely free to say so.
The few who have were in Athens, kicking that ball. The Iraqi footballers, who’d asked Baldoni’s kidnappers to free him, announced, “We will not be wearing black arm bands. We regret the death of the Italian journalist but it’s necessary also to think of the hundreds of Iraqis who have died each day during resistance to the occupation.
“It would be necessary to wear an armband every day.”
Is there enough black cloth in the whole country to make them? “An armband every day” for every Iraqi killed in a war and occupation that should never have happened?
Little uncensored news escapes Iraq, if it views the US negatively. And so the Iraqi national soccer team stunned the world two ways — walking the walk, and talking the talk.
They played incredibly well; winning games against nations that should have vanquished them easily, and almost won a bronze medal. Given the disruption and strife, it’s miraculous they even showed up to play. But the real surprise was their vocal dismay at what the US invasion and occupation has done to their country.
“I want the violence and the war to go away from (Najaf),” declared Salih Sadir, a Najafi star midfielder and team leader. “We don’t wish for the presence of Americans in our country. We want them to go away.”
Midfielder Ahmed Mamajid of Fallujah thundered that US President George Bush might have more to worry about than earthly re-election: “How will (Bush) meet his God having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes.” Manajid added that US troops had killed his cousin and several friends, all resistance fighters.
And unlike American athletes who frequently announce their next stop is Disneyland, Manajid declared he would “for sure” fight with Iraq’s insurgency. “I want to defend my home. If a stranger invades America and the people resist, does that mean they are terrorists? Everyone (in Fallujah) has been labeled a terrorist. This is all lies. Fallujah people are some of the best people in Iraq.”
Their coach agreed: “My problems are not with the American people,” he said, “they are with what America has done in Iraq. Destroy everything. The American Army has killed so many people in Iraq.”
An armband every day.
They sound ungrateful, but these are free words, spoken freely by free Iraqis to a free press. Words describing exactly the opposite of what the American public is officially told. How ironic they had to leave their own “free” nation to do it. But the neocon world drips with irony.
These Iraqi athletes, who cannot vote for or against Bush or Kerry, have seized the right to talk back to power. Indeed, there was something undeniably, well, American, in their refusal to wear armbands, and in criticizing Bush campaign ads showing Afghani and Iraqi flags rippling as a breezy voice-over chirped, “At this Olympics there will be two more free nations’ and two fewer terrorist regimes,” and of Bush’s own bragging, “The image of the Iraqi soccer team playing in this Olympics, it’s fantastic, isn’t it? It wouldn’t have been free if the United States had not acted.”
“Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign,” announced Sadir. “He can find another way to advertise himself.”
In this defiant gross ingratitude is a freedom that is truly American.
These Iraqis are outraged Bush used the tragedy the neocons brought to their country for a political commercial. And they will not belittle their own, uncountable dead for the unfortunate killing of the “war tourist.” Unable to be heard in their own country, they have taken a stand abroad.
Good for them.
— Sarah Whalen is an expert in Islamic law and taught law at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana.
