Article:No Iraqi Olympians

Hey Fans,

With just over 100 days before the presidential election, I depart from my usual and write a bit on politics. Today the IOC sent a letter to the Iraq Olympic Committee to inform them that their seven person team will not be invited to the Beijing Games next month. The IOC banned the Iraqi team for "political interference" in its Olympic Committee. Maybe the fact that the head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee was kidnapped July '06 and has not been seen since, had something to do with that. My main problem is, yes there are several, but for brevity I'll stick to one, the United States and its shrinking coalition has spent about a trillion dollars and almost 5,000 young men and women have given their lives as well as over 20,000 soldiers who have come home with less limbs and a shattered mental state. And the proof of our good work is that the Iraqi Olympians will remain in Baghdad, to watch the Games huddled in some stone house as rockets and bullets fly overhead. Whatever happened to "Mission Accomplished"? The fact that the Iraqi Olympic team will not take part in the games is proof enough for me that we haven't done the great job that our President wants us to believe. Do you remember when the Iraqi soccer team participated in the Asian soccer games, which I think they actually won a few years ago. George Bush was front and center all over the media to show how great a job the US had done to "liberate" this oppressed country from it's tyrannical ruler who supposedly had vast amounts of WMD's. Where is our President now? I'm sorry friends, but when you try to evaluate how a job is going, you use the criteria you have at hand to make a decision. And when I hear that the Iraqi team will not be in Beijing. I feel sorry for my friend's son who died in Iraq and for all those other families who are so desperately seeking a way to rationalize their loved ones passing. Today is not the day they will find those answers. Hopefully soon, one day they will.

Till next time.

Chuck T

www.wonfan.com