Cheering Another Kind Of Goal For Iraq
Sarah Birnbaum is a Desk Assistant for CBS News Radio in New York.
I'm not surprised. I know first hand the power of soccer to ease sectarian tensions; I am already a disciple.
Here is my story:
In the summer of 1999, while NATO was bombing Serbia to get Milosevic's troops out of Kosovo, I was at an international summer camp in the Hungarian countryside. The camp hosted kids from all over the world, and 1999 was the first year the camp opened its doors to Americans. So I and seven other 10th graders trekked from suburbia to Szarvas, Hungary, for an international experience. And that's what we got.
The camp counselors, in a moment of blind optimism, decided it would be nice to house the eight of us with a motley crew of Albanians, Croatians and Serbs in a 300-square-foot hut.
I'd like to believe that the counselors had no notion of how much the Yugoslavians hated us. Many of the kids staying at the camp that summer were refugees from the NATO bombs. They were cut off from their parents and friends, who were still in Belgrade and Kosovo. These kids were alone and scared and mad as hell. They blamed the United States and us, America's teenage ambassadors, for their situation.
Their jeers started the minute we disembarked from the bus. The Albanians, Croatians and Serbs - apparently allied by their hatred of the United States - were screaming "USA, GO AWAY" at the top of their lungs. I was called a bunch of unprintable names. And to top it all off, the kids who weren't name-calling were in the process of forming a human shield around the cabin we were supposed to share with them, barring us from going inside.
Uh-oh.
The counselors convened an emergency meeting. What to do? After a tense 45 minutes, they emerged from the meeting with an apparent solution: a soccer match. Americans versus Yugoslavians.
"Huh? That's your brilliant plan?" we thought.
Well, it worked. The game was vicious. Both sides played their hearts out. But we managed to channel our aggression into the sport, and then after the game, we had a shared experience we could bond over. Soon, we were all commiserating over my pitiable hand-eye coordination.
"It's a good thing you're not in charge of bombing the targets at home, otherwise, we'd all be dead," Maya from Belgrade said - but with humor in her voice, not malice. We've been friends ever since.
So now I am a believer in soccer. I wouldn't be surprised if the Asian Cup accomplishes stability better than the troop surge. That would really be a goal worth celebrating.