Posted on: Friday, August 13, 2004

Iraq's win brings hope to a country

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

For once there were scenes of an Iraqi demonstration that told a story of poignancy and hope, not death and despair. No weapons in the hands of frenzied mobs this time, just tears of triumph and hugs of elation on a soccer field and in the stands.

For perhaps the first time since the statue of Saddam Hussein was sent crashing down off its pedestal in downtown Baghdad, here was something that all Iraqis, and those who wish for peace in their fractured land, could share a moment in cheer.

Well, at least those outside of Portugal, the 4-2 stunning upset victim of Iraq in yesterday's first-round Olympic men's soccer match in Patras, Greece.

Here the traditional opening ceremonies don't take place until today and already the bar has been set high for this Olympiad, both in terms of athletic accomplishment and human significance.

Think the Olympics are all about medal counts and world records? This match said otherwise in so many ways and in any number of languages.

For purely sport, the result was remarkable in that just a month ago Portugal was a European Cup finalist against Greece. Iraq? It was a longshot — in more ways than one — just to get to Greece this week.

Its head coach wisely chose to stay in Germany after receiving threats that he wouldn't make it to Athens alive. Stadiums the team might have played in had been converted to military uses and the team hardly practiced, we are told, because of travel problems and security issues. All around them, daily life left little time for games.

That it was the soccer team that has given the country this first taste of triumph on a major international sporting stage in years carries considerable symbolism. For it was the soccer players that Uday Hussein, the eldest of the ruling despot's two sons, often chose to make the most brutal and visible examples of by torture and murder in the basement of the infamous Iraqi National Olympic building.

He tortured and murdered them for losing matches and perceived slights to the ruling family and the country. Human rights organizations and Iraqi opposition groups have documented cases of at least 50 athletes killed by the Husseins before they were toppled from power.

So terrible and well known had the terror of athletes become, that Iraq, which was sending nearly 50 athletes to the Olympics back in 1980 as Saddam Hussein seized control, was down to just four willing participants for Sydney in 2000.

The message was clear: If star athletes weren't safe, then the public had best watch its step, too.

That period of terror is behind Iraq now. And someday soon, you hope, the current killing and violence will end, too.

Until then, sports has provided an Olympic moment of hope for better times to rally around.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.