A hopeful sign of better days to come:

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Iraq completed one of sport's great fairytales by beating Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the Asian Cup final on Sunday to provide a rare moment for celebration in their war-torn homeland.

The Saudis had been bidding to become the first four-times winners of the tournament but Iraq, riding a wave of global sentiment, upset the hot-favourites for a rare slice of sporting glory.

"This is not just about football... this is more important than that," Iraq's Brazilian coach Jorvan Vieira told a news conference.

"This has brought great happiness to a whole country. This is not about a team, this is about human beings."

Human beings, indeed - all too often, the fact that Iraqis are human beings is forgotten in our debates. What matters the asinine critics when there are real, flesh and blood human beings at stake in Iraq? It is because the Iraqis are human - our brothers and sisters - that we must persevere until their future can be confidently rested in their own hands. All else in the debate is worthless - only the people matter.

Posted by Mark Noonan at July 29, 2007 01:55 PM

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Comments

OT, but did you guys see this?

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Shocking!

Jeremiah

Posted by: Jeremiah at July 29, 2007 03:42 PM

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OT, but did you guys see this?

Shocking!

Jeremiah

Posted by: Jeremiah at July 29, 2007 03:43 PM

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Sports can sometimes bring a community together. I was in Colorado the first year the Broncos went to the Super Bowl. I t seemed as if the whole state came together in support of the team. Hopefully this will give the Iraqis something to take pride in.

Posted by: Casper at July 29, 2007 06:09 PM

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Congratulations to the Iraqi soccer team!! You guys rock!

Posted by: james allegro at July 29, 2007 11:51 PM

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After the game, team captain, Younis Mahmoud, called for the United States to withdraw its troops from his nation.

“I want America to go out,” he said. “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.”

Posted by: Canadian Observer at July 30, 2007 05:23 PM

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