Perhaps some of the billions of dollars we're spending over there can be used to build soccer fields and get them involved in organized competition. Maybe that would distract them from their life of fear and give them something positive to work out their aggression. They could have Sunni vs. Shia rivalries like we have Boston vs. Yankee's. Maybe we could go as far as building golf courses and introduce them to the fine sport of golfing. Nah, maybe not, that would be wishful thinking. I'm sure glad I live here in the U.S.A. where there is so much more to life than violence.

Erik

or maybe instead of the current people in the Iraqi government stealing Iraq's money, they should have spend some of that money to buy these matches and broadcast them in the local channels so that they are available in every Iraqi home!

Good answer Erik, you're a very wise man!! I agree that we should build some fields for the youths & a few parks so when things fnally settle down, they can enjoy a healthy benefit of their land.

Maybe some of the unemployeed men could go out and join thier military or their police force so that my husband could come home from another tour in Iraq. I feel for the people of Iraq but I also see a lot of people standing by and letting the "others" defend them, then and only then they could have a VOICE and change their own no fun land into a beautiful country where children and families could have fun together.

Yet another benefit of our liberation of Iraq. But why did Saddam restrict soccer viewing?

I turned on my radio today, and the most pressing issue of the day was how a couple didn't do enough to support their child while doing his homework; the teacher had wrote a note for the parents to pitch in more, and the discussion went back and forth about who is responsible for what.

We take so much for granted here in this great country of ours... Stores full of food on every corner, water that flows when the faucet is turned on, electricity in almost every home, etc. Our dogs get better treatment for injury and disease than some people do. This country is great because most of the people in it agreed to be kind to one another and agreed to respect the lives of their neighbors as well as their own. We agree to stop at stop lights for each other; we agree to social mandates learned as children; we agree to pay for what we use; we agree to show up at work and the boss agrees to pay us. We vote on what matters to us. We change what we don't like with a vote instead of a gun.

All these things happen because we want it that way. All of us. We agree upon it. The Iraqi people need to make a decision about what they want their new lives to look like and start acting that way. As we all know, one little old lady on a crack-filled street in a run-down neighborhood can change the whole tempo of drugs and ruin, and clean up that block. It is possible here, and it is possible there. When the Iraqi people, and people everywhere, actively decide to take control of their own lives, for the betterment of their children, things change. We can not do it for them. They have to agree together. It's a long way off, for sure.

Its great to here that even if for a few short weeks the Iraqi people can enjoy themselves more feeling like a normal people and escape the dangers of what is their world today. Most everything I read about Iraq is negative so this is great to hear. I wish more positive stories were written like maybe how many roads & schools had been built or repaired by the US and/or Iraqis. Positive stories reaching readers here in the States will help releive some of the fears of those doubters out there that think we are not helping this country and the world to be a little better.

Niteclerk, Saddam did not ban football games in Iraq. Afghanistan banned football games. You are mixing these places up. I know, it's only a war far from home. Enjoy your cheese

Indeed, why not settle disputes with soccer matches?Instead of building an enourmous new American Diplomatic complex, why don't we build a soccer stadium? Hell, why not build several? It would only cost a fraction of what takes to run the war. Anyway, isn't the point of us being there to help pacify the country?

Cary is right, what I don't understand is the fact that they destroy any good that we may have been able to do; do they not get that if we were not having to fight we could be rebuilding, but I guess its like one soilder said in one of these blogs; they just don't care, life has no value, its so sad to think of what we could be teaching them and helping them to do to rebuild their country, snd I realize that the majority of them would gladly accept our help if only they could, it is just so very frustrating to know what we could be doing and the fact that a small part can totally disrupt the entire plan with violence like we haven't seen on our soil since the Civil War. But like I have said before, if we weren't fighting over there it would most certainly be here; now thats scary.