Iranian refuses to face Israeli at Olympics

Speaking of that area of the world - how about that Iraqi soccer team?  Bunch of ingrates.  If it wasn\'t for us and Britain kicking out Saddam they wouldn\'t even be there.  Personally, I was cheering for the Aussies on Saturday.

"Midfielder Ahmed Manajid told SI\'s Grant Wahl that if he weren\'t playing soccer, he\'d be back in his home of Fallujah fighting the coalition. "I want to defend my home. If a stranger invades America and the people resist, does that mean they are terrorists?" he said. "Everyone [in Fallujah] has been labeled a terrorist. These are all lies. Fallujah people are some of the best people in Iraq."

Obviously a former Baath party member...

I hope this guy goes back home and picks up a gun and promptly gets his head blown off by Marine.

Originally posted by GigaShadow
Speaking of that area of the world - how about that Iraqi soccer team?  Bunch of ingrates.  If it wasn\'t for us and Britain kicking out Saddam they wouldn\'t even be there.  

IIRC, before the athlete where handled by Udey or was it the other son? Anyway if they did not perform good enough, they would get burned by cigarettes etc.. Nice. They did compete during Saddams era though.

Iraq have only taken one medal in a summer Olympic game.. ever, a bronze medal.

Yeah, but with sanctions I don\'t think Iraq would have been allowed to compete.  They were kicked out of the some sports federation because of Uday (sp?) torturing athletes.  

Back to the point, they wouldn\'t even be competing if it wasn\'t for the coalition.  You would think they would be a little more grateful.  I don\'t care about them complaining about Bush using the flags and the Olympics in campaign ads, but that statement from Sports Illustrated where one guy said he would be back fighting the coalition pissed me off.

UPDATE

Now this loser is getting paid by Iran for refusing to fight.  I wish the IOC would ban Iran from the next Olympics.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran have given judo world champion Arash Miresmaeili a $125,000 (70,000 pounds) reward, saying he sacrificed a gold medal at the Athens Olympics by refusing to fight an Israeli, a sports official says.


State television showed Miresmaeili at an award ceremony receiving the same sum as Iranian Hossein Rezazadeh, who took the super-heavyweight weightlifting gold at the second Olympics in succession.


"He would definitely have won a gold medal if he had taken part," the sports official, who declined to be named, said on Tuesday.


"By refusing to fight, Miresmaeili followed the policies of the country," the official added.


Iran has refused to recognise the Jewish state\'s right to exist since its 1979 Islamic revolution.


The International Judo Federation had considered a sanction against Miresmaeili during the Games but concluded that he had been overweight for the fight and could not have taken part.


The International Olympic Committee (news - web sites) also did not take any action.


Miresmaeili was drawn against Israel\'s Ehud Vaks in the first round of the men\'s under 66 kg category in Athens. After officials said initially he would not fight against an Israeli, Miresmaeili was eventually scratched because he was overweight.




Was this guy even a favorite to win?

[Titan]

Probably not which would be why he did not face the Israeli