After the victory you didn’t read the normal, “We’re so happy and lets get drunk” quotes, instead we get Iraqi captain, Younis Mahmoud, saying stuff like:

“I want America to go out. Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but out. I wish the American people didn’t invade Iraq and, hopefully, it will be over soon.”

Fair enough I guess, in the only airtime the guy will probably ever receive he calls for political change. How often do you see that in America? You think if Terrell Owens wins the Super Bowl he’ll call for Medicare reform? If that wasn’t out of place, how about this:

“I don’t want the Iraqi people to be angry with me. If I go back with the team, anybody could kill me or try to hurt me.”

Now why anybody would want to kill the guy for winning Asia’s premier football tournament is beyond the scope of most people’s imagination. Maybe because he partook in a team which had both Shias and Sunis? The football team is probably a microcosm of what Iraq should be and this is probably one of those cases where politics can learn from sport. And to put things in perspective the victory came only a day after 30 Iraqis were killed in bomb attacks.

This is an Arsenal/TFC blog but I thought this deserved its own post.

Does anyone have the video of Timothy McVeigh getting killed? Or for that matter any other criminals sentenced to death? Why was this video made public? I for one think whoever decided to make it public was counting on Saddam to act like a coward and cry like a little baby before he’s about to get killed. That didn’t happen and instead Saddam looked like a man who didn’t regret any of his actions and firmly believed in whatever he did, right or wrong. I dare to say that he even looked brave and perhaps even gained greater support and sympathizers after his death. I would say the majority of the Sunni Muslim population across the globe agrees with me.

There are even some reports that the night before his hanging, the executioner was dangling the rope in front of his cell, taunting him that it’s waiting for him in the morning. If that is true, it’s pretty pathetic on the part of the government. How can a government call itself civilized and then release a video of a former leader getting killed behind the propaganda that it provides “closure” for his victims. Yes, he was a brutal dictator and caused many deaths, but I hardly believe that he caused even 1/10th of the deaths in Iraq that George W. Bush’s regime has caused. But that is a perspective most people refuse to even adopt or even care to examine.

The timing of the hanging is ridiculous to the point of being offensive. Eid ul-Adha is one of the holiest days in the Muslim calendar and why the Iraqi government chose this as the day of his execution is beyond my comprehension. Perhaps Nuri Kamal al-Maliki thougt that he needed to keep his promise of executing Saddam in the year 2006? If that was the rationale, then it certainly sucked since it soured the day for Muslims who were both for and against his execution. Would it have made any difference if he were to be executed on say, January 15th?

I am not an Iraqi and did not suffer under Saddam’s rule nor was I saddened or jubilant when he was executed. From my perspective, he died a very dignified death. He looked death straight in the eye and did not budge from what he believed in. He knew it was his destiny to die in such a manner and was not surprised, scared or even bothered by the cowards who waited until he was tied to a noose with his hands and legs cuffed before speaking against him.

When he tried to cover-up the fact that Dick Cheney referred to water-boarding in an interview, it was sad enough. A few weeks later when the Iraq Study Group Report came out, he accused a reporter for being partisan when he simply quoted the report. Having worked at Fox News prior to being appointed White House Press Secretary, he’s had the proper training in bending facts and creating an even wash where there’s a clear cut case. When the Iraq report came out, Tony Snow simply couldn’t handle the barrage of questions at the podium and finally asked reporters to give him some time to “parse the report” which really meant that he needed more time to find a way to illuminate the report so it would be more favorable to the administration.

If you asked Tony Snow something like, “Has the administration done anything wrong, ever?”, he’d have a hard time responding with a yes. If you’ve seen a White House press conference held by Tony Snow, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Being the White House Press Secretary has now become the sleaziest job in the world and Snow is doing a fine job.

Snow also reduced the Lamont/Loserman election to simply: Do you take the war on terror seriously or not? When he was asked about the US Presidential veto on stem cell research, his answer didn’t go beyond: The President thinks murder is wrong. I’m surprised the press actually attends the White House press briefings because they never get anything out of them. Every question is conveniently dodged and every inconvenient fact is brushed aside as if it didn’t matter or was constructed out of thin air. There is absolutely zero sense of honesty on the part of the person speaking on the podium and the entire briefing is more of a formality than a fact-finding mission which it is supposed to be.

I’m not sure what kind of person you need to be in order to wake up in the morning and know that today will consist entirely of you twisting the English language and splitting hairs until your bosses look good.

Here’s the “parse the report” press conference for your amusement:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VRJ7zOwbWE]