Not to minimize the accumulated impact of the stream of dreadful news from Iraq over the past few weeks, but a piece of good news appears today: the Iraqi soccer team has qualified for the 2004 Olympics. Good for them — a step towards rejoining the World. I keep a list of things that, were I to fall asleep for 20 years or so, I’d hope to see when I awake; one of them is regularly scheduled soccer games between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and Kuwaitis, and Iraqis, and . . . In the current soccer world, Israel is placed into “Europe,” while the Arab nations are in “Asia,” so they don’t routinely meet for things like World Cup qualifying. The world will be a much better place if/when they do.
Comments are closed.