Insurgent fighting in Baghdad stops during Iraqi soccer games

[undeterred]

according to ABC world news. Crime decreases while people watch television. If only life was one long soccer game.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=2714759&page=1

BAGHDAD, Dec. 10, 2006 — In this city, which has become perhaps the most dangerous place on the planet, there is one thing that seems to quiet the chaos — the national soccer team.

The effect of a big game — like Saturday's match against Uzbekistan — is amazing. The fighting and the crime in Baghdad come almost to a complete halt.

The city is transformed as its residents sit, transfixed, before television screens. Shiites and Sunnis crowed into cafes and living rooms, all rooting for the same thing.

(At the ABC News bureau in Baghdad, work comes second during a game. You can forget about asking anything of the normally hard-working Iraqi staff.)

:shrug:

[JeffR]

1. This makes me feel a little better about the human race, somehow

As weird as it is...

[rpannier]

2. I don't know how much play it got in the States

Last June at the start of the World Cup, an area held by a militant fundie group was overthrown by the people living there when the islamo-taliban group announced that the people couldn't watch the World Cup because it undermined good morals.


on note: I live in Asia. The story was carried by Asia-Pacific Broadcasting, Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.

[Igel]

10. That would be Somalia.

UIC folk ruled against screens for displaying the competition to large groups; there were problems; and the UIC suddenly discovered that some errant under-munchkin had made the decision and instructed the street-thug enforcers without informing any of the control freaks that supervise every detail of everything else.

[Demoiselle]

3. There ya go...a solution to all the world's strife...

Endless soccer, beamed into every home on the planet.
Hey, I'm only half kidding.
Bread and circuses, folks.

[valerief]

4. Is that why the US has non-stop football? Well, whatever works! nt

[Annces]

5. Amazing what sports can do

Tomorrow they play South Korea. Another time to stop the fighting.

[Kolesar]

7. any day I get to read verse about Coyote is a good day

:)

[Annces]

8. thanks

There is an abundance of stories about Coyote.

[undeterred]

6. Note that this is international competition

Iraq is still a unified country for that purpose anyway.

[B Calm]

9. Insurgent fighting will stop when we leave Iraq too...

[Gregorian]

11. We're there for one reason. To take.

In a SOTU speach, Bush said "We have no ambition in Iraq". We're there for oil and contractors.

I feel like we're dealing with first grade mentality. And I know why. Because what is happening doesn't make sense. It's a heist. It's stealing. It's killing. None of those ever make sense.

IF we really were there for the reasons that Bush has stated, we could easily have done exactly what is in this article. We could, and for a hell of a lot less money I should add, simply keep them entertained and... Oh god, this sounds so silly. I can't even type it. It's nonsense.

I hope these bastards fry in hell.