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At night in cafes, Iraqis were glued to television screens. Their cold cardamom his tea isticanat was forgotten under the billowing smoke of his 1,000th cigarette that night.
In the living room, mothers raised their hands and prayed. In the corners of Mosul, Basra and far-flung exile, Iraqi hearts raced to Moroccan chants as Walid Legraghi’s Atlas Lions ventured into hitherto unknown World Cup territory and conquered it in style. rice field.
Spain, Portugal and Belgium lost to Morocco and France to Tunisia. As defined in The New York Times’ glossary, the “crappy” Saudi Arabian scored his one of the best goals of the tournament against an embarrassing Argentina.
This is how we remember the World Cup. Palestinian flags in the stands and an Arab and North African victory on the pitch.
Unfortunately, hundreds and thousands of people who were supposed to cheer have gone missing.
Their eyes would have lit up when Sofian Amrabat chased Kylian Mbappe on the left flank and won the ball with a perfect tackle.
The missing are the children of Fallujah.
they are sleeping now On a chilly winter afternoon, the soccer field, which they would have imitated by Achraf Hakimi and Yasin Bunou, is their haven. Their mothers don’t have to worry about their muddy tracksuits tomorrow.
Today the field is known as the Martyrs’ Cemetery. It is where the inhabitants of the once-besieged city buried the women and children massacred in repeated US attacks to quell the ferocious rebellions early in the occupation. In Iraq, even playgrounds have become places of mourning. The war required that Fallujah be bombarded with depleted uranium and white phosphorus.
But American barbarism did not stop there. Twenty years later, after developing unfathomable birth defects, the U.S. Navy named one of her warships her USS Fallujah.
The late Walter Benjamin wrote in his Thesis on the Philosophy of History: In this procession, the revolutionary German philosopher wrote that “the booty is carried”.
This is how the US empire continues its war against the Iraqis. Fallujah’s name is bleached with white phosphorus implanted in the mother’s womb for generations, and it’s also the booty of war. A statement by the United States Empire explaining the decision to name its warships after Fallujah stated that “under tremendous odds”, “the Marines would defeat a determined enemy who enjoyed all the advantages of defending in urban areas.” I beat him,” he said.
Through this historical revisionism, the United States launched a new attack on the dead. Benjamin had warned that “if he wins, he cannot escape the enemy, even the dead.” the enemy won.
All that is left are the haunting absences of families, homes that have been bombed to nonexistence, and photographs that have been incinerated with smiles. Instead, a fatally corrupt system of cross-denominational theft camaraderie has been bequeathed to us by the unpunished war criminals of Downing Street and the Beltway.
Even football promises to serve that system that imprisoned Iraqis in a state of war. This is a favorable and stable anomaly. In January, the southern city of Basra hosts the Arabian Gulf Cup, a regional football tournament. It’s a rare opportunity for Iraqis to see a national team that has long brought them the joy of playing at home.
“This is how the siege works!” is a 1990s song for the Lions of Mesopotamia, known as Iraq’s national football team. At that time we were subjected to a “humanitarian” famine imposed by the United Nations, and Moroccan legend Mustafa Haji at the 1998 World Cup in France gave us a reason to smile. gave it to me.
Years after the World Cup, the umbilical cord that stretches from Baghdad to Cairo to Rabat is the story of Moroccan red-clad Arabs and Amazig men rebelling against the wounds of imperialism old and new. They tied us together behind our backs.
In Basra, however, the sport serves a different purpose. It is to give legitimacy to the system born of imperial power, which has repeatedly failed the people it claims to represent.
In recent years, young civilians in Basra have been killed for making life-or-death decisions dominated by militias and peacefully protesting an unlivable reality that strangles the economy in a deteriorating environment beyond salvation.
As football plays in southern cities and politicians pose for photographers in the stands, mothers are reminded of the loss of their sons and daughters who were sent to graves early in the October 2019 uprising. you will mourn and mourn. I don’t have a voice for them. This is how Iraq’s doomed existence is normalized by sportswashing.
Iraqi homes are open to welcome relatives from all over the Arabian Peninsula, but they are not content with local politics.
The rise of the Coordinating Framework Government, led by Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani, shows that there is no rupture with the violent past. On the contrary, more than ever, factions and armed groups loyal to Iran are consolidating their grip on power.
As I read the daily news of my hometown from afar, the ghost of the late Iraqi poet Sargon Bourse visits Washington, DC. he whispers in my ear
After 20 years in the arms of war, football could not force a smile on the face of a young woman who gave birth to a deformed baby and was buried in Fallujah. Fallujah is a city whose name was even looted by the United States. empire. For the mother of the dead young man in Basra, it’s football played in the cemetery.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial attitude of Al Jazeera.
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