#74 - Grasping for Victories

The President has found another reason why Iraqis were lucky to have hosted the American occupation:

At a speech in Beaverton, Ore., last Friday, Bush attached himself to the Iraqi soccer team after its opening-game upset of Portugal. "The image of the Iraqi soccer team playing in this Olympics, it's fantastic, isn't it?" Bush said. "It wouldn't have been free if the United States had not acted."

Bush is so proud of the Iraqi soccer team’s accomplishments in Athens that he added a reference to the team in his latest campaign ad.

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."

Of course, this does not sit well with the Iraqi athletes themselves, who are decidedly angry at the Bush team’s frequent campaign-related references to their success.

"Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign," [Salih] 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."

(Sports Illustrated.com/CNN)