IRAQ THE MODEL

"Congratulations from Australia to the Iraqi natinal team for a great game - you played well and deserved to win.

I also commend you on saying that indeed you do mind when Bush uses you in his political electioneering. Fair enough, and thank you for expressing the sentiments - because it tells me more about the how the everyday Iraqi feels than can be deducted from the commentariate. I HOPE YOU WIN THE GOLD.

Omar, you reveal that you are not the ordinarly, everyday Iraqi when you say, "This is the *BEST* acheivment Iraq has ever acheived in soccer. Strange isn't it!? Not to me! I really expected that despite the difficult life in Iraq that our athletes were going to perform better than ever, and I believe it's the effect of freedom."

The reason why I say this is because it is not true, and it would be something that the average, everyday soccer-mad Iraqi WOULD KNOW is not true.

I don't think you know much about soccer at all, like most of the American's on this blog.

Iraq beat Australia to get into the semi-finals of the FWC not last WC but the World Cup before. To help our American friends understand - the Olympics is not the biggest thing in soccer, it is the World Cup.

That is why I still think, like so many others do, that this blog is just about run by folk who have a propaganda agenda.

If I am wrong I am happy to apologise though - but I not that you have pulled down that Israeli look-alike flag at last. Where did you get that idea from? Bet you I get banned again for saying what I think. Contrary opinions don't seem to be tolerated here."
Wadard.

I found this in our comment section and I think I have some thing to say about it:
Thank you for your wishes to the Iraqi team and Iraqis.
First, my information is totally correct and I have no idea from where did you get yours. Iraq qualified to WC only once and that was in Mexico 1986. We played 3 matches and lost them all; Against Paraguay (0-1), Belgium (1-2) and Mexico (0-1). I watched all the 3 matches, so I think you should apologize here.
2nd I won't ban you, as the rules were clear and you haven't violated any.

As for the flag, I've made it clear why we didn't use the 'old' flag and there are many Iraqi bloggers as well as Iraqis who agree with us. I was hoping that the government would have adopted the proposed flag or any other one that doesn't point to Arab nationalism only, but as this seems to be a remote possibility, I've decided to pull it down and I won't use any flag until they change it, and I think I've made it clear before that I was using this flag temporarily.

You are not the 1st one who call us a US propaganda. I guess this is because we support America's effort in our country without any question. I know we shouldn't and we should be more objective, but the problem is that we found ourselves in the middle of fierce anti-war propaganda that wants Iraq desperately to fail just to prove that America was wrong. Thus we seem to have gone rather far in our support for America's policy as well as the interim Iraqi government and I'd like to say that this was not our intention when we started this blog.

It's very hard to remain objective when you are in the middle of a war and when all your dreams and hopes are being seriously threatened everyday. However, I realize that we must have gone far in our unquestioned support for the American administration and I'll try my best to put this in mind in the future and be as objective as I can.

-Ali.