Iraqi Athletes vs. Bush

Via Yahoo News:

The Bush campaign is running an ad in which the flags of Iraq and Afghanistan appear.

A narrator says, "At this Olympics there will be two more free nations—and two fewer terrorist regimes. With strength, resolve and courage, democracy will triumph over terror and hope will defeat hatred."…

"How will he meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women?" [Iraqi soccer player] Ahmed Manajid told SI.com. "He has committed so many crimes."…

The players said they were grateful that Saddam Hussein's son, Uday, was no longer in charge of the country's Olympians, SI.com reported. He had tortured players for playing badly. U.S. troops killed him last year in Mosul.

Still, the team's coach said the ad was inappropriate and that the team does not support the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

"My problems are not with the American people," Iraqi coach Adnan Hamad told SI.com. "They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything," he said. "The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the (national) stadium and there are shootings on the road?"

Whole story here.

You can view the ad, titled "Victory" at the Bush campaign site. It is a strange bit of film, which jumps from an incongruous shot of George and Laura to scenes from the Olympics. It highlights the fact that in 1972 there were 40 democracies in the world and now there are 120.

Presumably no Iraqi athletes were harmed in the filming of the spot.