Soccer Win Brings Joy To Iraq, For A Day

(CBS/AP)  Hundreds of pages have been ripped from the calendar since Iraqis last showed the unity and happiness that flowed across the land on Sunday.

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:

The latest audit report to Congress on Iraq reconstruction says corruption in the country, including fraud, theft and skimming amounts to a "second insurgency" is hindering the rebuilding effort. Stuart Bowen, who wrote the quarterly report, tells The Associated Press that except for security, corruption is the biggest challenge for the Iraqi government to overcome. Failure to maintain projects, once transferred to the Baghdad government, also figures in the report.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday in separate attacks in Iraq, the military said. One U.S. soldier from the Multi-National Division — Baghdad was killed by small-arms fire during combat operations north of Baghdad, the military said. Another died in fighting in an eastern section of the capital, according to a separate statement.

Republicans increasingly are backing a new approach in the Iraq war that could become the party's mantra come September. It would mean narrowly limiting missions for U.S. troops but letting President Bush decide when troops should come home. So far, the idea has not attracted the attention of Democratic leaders. They are under substantial pressure by anti-war groups to consider only legislation that orders troops from Iraq.

Court-martial proceedings were to begin Monday for U.S. Army Spc. Jesse Spielman, charged with knowledge of a plan by fellow soldiers to break into a home and rape and kill a 14-year-old Iraqi girl in March 2006. Prosecutors say he knew of the plan, did nothing to stop it and touched the girl's nude body before the soldiers left, according to military charging documents released at the time of his arrest.

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