Soccer Win Brings Joy To Iraq, For A Day
Aid Agencies Report: 1 In 3 Need Immediate Aid, 70 Percent Lack Water, 15 Percent Hungry
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Play CBS Video Video Iraq United Over Soccer Win A team dubbed "The Lions of the Two Rivers" gave Iraqis a sense of pride and unity that few have even dreamed of for years-a release from hatred and violence, if only for a day. Allen Pizzey reports.
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A soccer fan, whose body is painted with the Iraqi flag, celebrates in the streets of the Shiite enclave of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, after the Iraq national soccer team beat Saudi Arabia in the Asian Cup finals, Sunday, July 29, 2007. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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Iraqi soldier shoots in the air as people, waving Iraqi flag, celebrate in streets of central Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, July 29, 2007. (AP)
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Jubilant Iraq's national soccer team members pose with their winning trophy during the presentation at the end of the final match of the Asian Football Cup 2007 at the Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta, July 29, 2007. (RAHMAN/AFP/Getty)
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Iraq's Younis Mahmoud, right, battles for the ball with Saudi Arabia's Ahmed Al Bahari during their AFC Asian Cup 2007 final match at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia, July 29, 2007. Mahmoud scored the winning goal in Iraq's 1-0 victory. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
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And it would have been foolhardy to predict a soccer team — the determined Lions of the Two Rivers — would unleash a flood of joy held back for decades by the dam of Saddam Hussein's tyranny and four-plus years of war since America toppled him.
But after the team's victory in the prestigious 2007 Asian Cup, the Iraqi people seemed far ahead of their leaders in letting sectarian bygones be bygones and allowing ethnic atrocities to fade.
Despite a security crackdown, curfews banning vehicles, and decrees forbidding the penchant in this part of the world to grab an AK-47 and rip off celebratory rounds, people rejoiced in the streets — and gunfire roared.
The short-lived break from the daily routine of bombs, kidnappings and executions showed what the war-torn country could look like, if squabbling politicians can find a way to unite and overcome the myriad difficulties facing their constituents.
A report published Monday by a network of relief agencies working in Iraq made clear length of the journey the young democracy must still complete if days like Sunday are to become commonplace.
About 8 million Iraqis — nearly a third of the population — need immediate emergency aid because of the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, the non-governmental agencies said Monday.
Those Iraqis are in urgent need of water, sanitation, food and shelter, said the report by Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee network in Iraq.
The report said 15 percent of Iraqis cannot regularly afford to eat; 70 percent are without adequate water supplies (up from 50 percent in 2003); 28 percent of children are malnourished (compared with 19 percent before the 2003 invasion); and 92 percent of Iraqi children suffer learning problems.
The report also said more than 2 million people — mostly women and children — have been displaced within Iraq, and 2 million Iraqis have fled the country as refugees, mostly to neighboring Syria and Jordan.
In other developments:
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