WE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!

(3adma announcing the victory of the Iraqi football team in the Asian Cup) With Iraq, very much the underdog, winning the Asian Cup I have another football special today.

(Baghdad Connect suggests a new Iraqi Flag)

You know, a few years back an Israeli, seeing that I was reading a book about Palestine, pointed out to me that the Palestinians never once created a national basketball team, how could they claim to be a nation? Well, by his benchmark, Iraq is the greatest country in the world this week. And here are the bloggers words to prove it...

Nabil:

The feeling we had today will never be forgotten, Iraqis here were all united, there weren't sunni or shiite or kurdish people, they were all iraqis just iraqis.
We all had great moments today, where laughter was mixed with the clean tears of joy of the true iraqs who love their country and do not care about being sunni or shiite or whatever. ...

CONGRATULATIONS IRAQ......
LONG LIVE IRAQ....
WE WILL HAVE PEACE ONE DAY AND WE WILL ALL RETURN TO OUR HOME AND WE WILL BE UNITED IRAQIS AGAIN, WHERE THE SUNNI IS A SHIITE AND THE SHIITE IS A SUNNI, THE KURDI IS ARABI AND THE ARABI IS KURDI OR TURKOMANI, THE MUSLIM IS A CHRISTIAN AND THE CHRISTIAN IS MUSLIM. THIS DAY WON'T TAKE TOO LONG TO COME, ALL THESE CRIMINALS IN POWER NOW WILL BE REMOVED AND THE REAL IRAQIS WILL LEAD THE COUNTRY AGAIN TO PEACE.
LONG LIVE IRAQ...

Ole' Ole' Ole' Iraq.
Elyoum yomak ya iraqi.

Neurotic Wife:

The GREAT LIONS OF BABYLON WON!!! You should have been there. YOu should have seen the happiness on everyones faces. You should have seen the tears on everyones cheeks. This surely is one of the greatest days and times for Iraq. For the Great Iraq. ... THE GREAT LIONS OF BABYLON WON!!!

Omar:

Today is definitely the happiest day for Iraqis in years. Tears of joy mixed with prayers for hope on the faces of millions of Iraqis…Words truly fail me and I can't describe the feeling so please pardon me if the post doesn't sound coherent; I hear the cheering and music outside although the bullets of celebration keep falling on the ground and roofs here and there. But no one seems to worry about that, the moment is so great that fear has no place in the hearts of the millions of fans, neither from bullets nor from crazy suicide bombers who tried to kill our joy last week.

Caesar of Pentra:

In my wildest dreams, I didn't imagine that Iraq could win the Asian cup.

.... As soon as the refree ended the match. hundreds of thousands of Iraqi all over the globe were out in the street partying the joy of the victory. As for me, I couldn't control myself and I went on crying like a baby. It was a great moment not for my own life only, but for millions of Iraqis I'm sure.

Baghdad Treasure :

Congratulations to the Lions of Mesopotamia for winning the Asian Cup. You did not let us down. You brought a smile and joy to our hearts, and took the pain out of our chests even if it was for one day.

A Tale of Hero's and Zeros...

According to Nabil, blogging from Jordan, sporting hero's award goes to the Saudi fans in, the capital, Amman:

Saudi people are the best people, they proved that they care about iraqis and that they are brothers to the iraqis... I really respected them today, they went out in their cars carrying iraqi flags an said "Iraqi....Iraqi... you deserve it".

And zero's of the day goes to the Jordanian Police. Neurotic Wife reports:

Yet even with this joy and happiness, some countries didn’t allow the Iraqis to share their rare celebrations. In Amman and Dimashq, police started beating up the Iraqi fans, and tearing up Iraqi flags. Funny how one anonymous reader asked me to be grateful to Jordan. Oh really??? Look at what theyre doing!!! Even in those rare and short moments of laughter, they kill it. Their hatred is so overwhelming. And when I talk about countries, I don’t mean the people, I mean the governments and their policies, so don’t take me wrong.

and Nabil, again:

it was really a very happy day but the bad thing was the response of the Jordanian authorities, they started to stop the cars and take the iraqi flags from the people and they arrested several people and beated several guys.

Shame on you, Jordan.

A new unity...

Last of Iraqis goes for a walk through the streets of Baghdad:

I was so amazed and happy for what I have seen , I've seen the streets busy as before the war , people every where walking and in cars celebrating and cheering , I was so delighted for this , I've seen the unity at last , for whatever reason it's still a unity , people coming from Adhamiya and from Al-Sa`ab and Al-Kahira and meeting in Al-Nidaa mosque intersection , they met to celebrate at the same spot where everyday confrontations happen , they met to celebrate there country victory in the same spot where conflicts and terrorists attacks takes place , I was very happy to see this , and I laughed my guts out when I saw a National Guards convoy , with the soldiers on the Humvees dancing and cheering in a very funny way , I saw the happiness everywhere , I felt it in the air , I felt safe for the first time since I got back to Baghdad.

Great Baghdad:

Every Body said that the Iraqi Team united the Iraqi people behind them and did what the politicians failed to do which is bringing the Iraqis together. I think the Correct statement is that the Iraqi National team fixed what the politicians are trying to do which is dividing the already United Iraqi people.

Hammorabi:

Let the victims of the terrorists and wars celebrate tonight!

The football team will unite the Iraqis irrespective of their differences.

Millions of Congratulations for all the Iraqis.

24 Steps to Liberty gets emails from around the world:

I actually got emails from friends overseas congratulating me. For once, I felt like a normal citizen of this globe. People emailed me not to talk about the last casualty number or the last development in the idle political process in Iraq, but to say congratulations. Oh people how much I miss this word.

“Hi Champion - Congratulations from Jerusalem!” said one of my friends and professors.

“IRAQ WINS IRAQ WINS IRAQ WINS!!” said the subject of another email from my American friend in Cairo. “Mabruk alayhom!!” the message said, congratulations to them, "it's the best news ever. I hope they are celebrating in the streets again!”

... old divisions ...

Neurotic Wife on the Saudi's:

One guy, N, said with great excitement, this was far more than a game, we beat the Wahhabis, he said. We beat them and showed them what Iraq is. We broke their noses (An Iraqi expression). I smiled, for it seems everyone took the football as a war. Just like I did. Everyone wanted to prove a point, everyone wanted to throw the Saudi noses to the floor, and oh yes we did. The Lions of Babylon did this so gracefully. What a team

But Great Baghdad sees a negative side to this attitude:

as the the Saudi people started to congratulate the Iraqi people for their win and achievement, the sectarian minded people in Iraq started to chant that " against the Wahabists ( the sonni sect in Saudi) this cup is a shiat". And they say that the others are sectarian!.

... the dead remembered ...

On the day of that most Iraqi's celebrated Baghdad Treasure's cousin was collecting her dead son from the morgue. He died while saving injured neighbours from the aftermath of a car bomb, caught in the crossfire between Iraqi troops and angry residents. He writes:

A 17-year-old teenager, Sameer died doing a noble thing, helping his wounded neighbors and friends to ambulances after a massive car bomb ...

I thought about Sameer a lot. He was a huge fan of soccer. I thought of him when our team won, and never forgot how his body was still at the morgue when the referee announced the end of the game. While many Iraqis rejoiced the triumph, there were many mothers crying for their dead children. My cousin was one of them.

Goodbye Sameer. We’ll miss you a lot. We’ll miss your smiling face when always won backgammon. We’ll always remember your earlier struggle and your heroism that will pave the road of martyrdom and the greatness of all Iraqis who sacrificed themselves to help our country.

Great Baghdad remembers the celebrating fans that were killed by a car bomb after the match against South Korea:

But the fiends of death were not pleased to see the Iraqis gathering in big crowds with no difference or discrimination between Sunni, Shiite or Kurds, so, they tried to kill the joy and turn off the flame of unity and the result was a bombed car and 50 innocent people killed. To be quite honest, I couldn't sleep that night!

One of the poor women has lost her son in that brutal blast decided not to set up the funeral because she believed that the Iraqi team would win the cup. So, the Iraqi players made a promise to do the impossible to grab the victory in the final. And they didn't disappoint that poor mother and other 25 millions of Iraqi ppl.

... and the politicians warned

No Pain No Gain:

If Iraqis cannot unite on a simple soccer match, then how could they agree on a unified government? There will be no way out of it, if this is so.
It is not worth to wait for lives being lost or for a weak government to reach a decision. We now know that Iraqis can no longer trust their next door neighbors. However, this can change if Iraqis want to attain their peace without the necessity of the government. People from all nations should realize that what goes on within the government can only create more chaos among the local society and to save the people is to encourage an understanding that at certain ocassions like the Asian Cup, Iraqis must do their best to protect their people from any danger against any certain faction of Iraq.

And Laith asks the politicians if they have learned a lesson:

The most important thing our national team did is giving you an important lesson about the most important subject in the school of life. The lesson was (how to be A Real Iraqi). They worked together. We didn’t have 11 players in the field, we had only one player but with 11 bodies. .... This is the lesson I talk about and I hope that you (our politicians) who watched the match and rewarded the knight, I hope you understand the lesson very well and try to pass the exams you have. The political crisis is not more than an exam and you are failures until this moment. I hope you study the lesson of the Iraqi national team again and try hard to pass this final exam.