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Postcards from Around the World
ABC News' Terry McCarthy has been reporting on war, peace, and everything in between from all around the world for 20 years. He writes about daily life in the areas he is reporting from.
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The Soccer War
June 20, 2008 5:57 PM
We went to an unusual soccer game this week in the small village of Multaka, 130 miles north of Baghdad. It pitted the local soccer stars against a team drawn from the 87th Infantry, the U.S. military unit that is responsible for the area. Their commander, Lt Colonel Chris Vanek, has been fielding a team for the past month against various villages in his area in an attempt to win hearts and minds and humanize the Americans in the eyes of the locals.
For many of the villagers it is the first time they have seen an American who is not wearing body armor and helmet and carrying a gun. (They wore blue t-shirts with their unit’s logo, “Freedom isn’t free …Never was”)
It was pretty funny to watch. Soccer does not come naturally to most American soldiers. They are “still Nascar and football,” says Vanek. He himself is a baseball and basketball fan.
But Iraqis are passionate about one sport, and one sport only: soccer. Last year when they won the Asian Cup, the celebratory gunfire went on all night. At the moment, they are in the qualifying stages for the next World Cup, and whenever there is a game on the streets are empty.
In Multaka, the local team went ahead in the first two minutes, and then scored again a couple of minutes later, much to the glee of the spectators. Vanek and his men took it all in good humor. They knew that even while losing, they were winning in the bigger picture.
Vanek is an interesting man –- part of the new generation of counter-insurgency-savvy officers so valued by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.
Vanek is a former special forces officer. In fact he was the operations officer for the Jessica Lynch rescue back in 2003 in the early days of the war. He has spent 48 months “in theater,” as they say here, and he has a good sense of Iraqi atmospherics.
When he arrived in Hawijah, his current base, last fall, his men were getting attacked three times a day. After some heavy fighting and also a lot of tea-drinking with local sheikhs to win over their loyalty, he has reduced violence now to about two or three attacks a month.
He knows his area of operations is not completely risk-free. On June 4, he lost three men in a firefight with some al Qaeda operatives they were tracking. But by and large, he thinks he has pacified his area. Hence the soccer games.
He knows full well that some of the players in the teams they confront were actually shooting at his men not too long ago. Now they get to shoot at the Americans’ goal -– and this time, they don’t get any return fire.
The game ended 8-0 against the Americans. The local mayor, dressed in a suit and tie, duly presented a cup to the winners and a smaller cup to the losers, and everyone went off for a huge feast prepared by a local sheikh. Mission accomplished. And not a shot fired.
Now maybe they should consider putting soccer training on the curriculum at West Point. …
June 20, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (5)
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A good story, a victory of the heart. I wish all of Iraq was like this, so we could leave and attend to business in the wild areas of Pakistan and adjoining Afghanistan.
Posted by: John's conscience | Jun 20, 2008 7:02:32 PM
Kudos to the troops.
Posted by: Sally | Jun 20, 2008 8:53:37 PM
Great story, I want to see more like it, Thanks!
Posted by: Chris Freeman | Jun 20, 2008 11:48:22 PM
Abu Seif is very hospitable towards us and has done a great job in keeping good local security. It's weird being out in sector with no protective gear on in public, but it allows you to see a sense of progress for this country. A few months ago if someone had told me to take my gear off to play a soccer game I would have told them they are crazy. I wish we could have scored at least one goal though.....
Posted by: SGT | Jun 22, 2008 11:34:46 AM
Remember LtC Vanek, soccer is basketball with your head, chest and legs on a 100 yard court where goaltending is legal. Look at the center circle for kickoff in soccer, its just like the center circle for tipoff guys.
Also, always keep your knee over the ball when shooting!
Regards,
EL BATALLON
TEXAS U.S.A.
Posted by: CeltTexan | Jun 25, 2008 2:20:58 PM
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