Okay, so maybe they didn’t call him a shithead, but they did announce how pissed off they are over the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, and how George W. Bush is using their successes as part of his advertising campaign for re-election.

According to the SF Gate, the advertisement goes something like this:

“In 1972, there were 40 democracies in the world. Today, 120,” an announcer says. “Freedom is spreading throughout the world like a sunrise. And this Olympics there will be two more free nations. And two fewer terrorist regimes.”

You can download the actual ad on the Bush-Cheney site. The funny part of the above wording, is that their metaphor about sunrise is so shitty. See, as the sun rises on a region of the world, it sets someplace else, plunging it into darkness…

This ad may also spell legal trouble, based on Congressional & Olympic by-laws:

An act of Congress, last revised in 1999, grants the USOC exclusive rights to such terms as “Olympic,” derivatives such as “Olympiad” and the five interlocking rings. It also specifically says the organization “shall be nonpolitical and may not promote the candidacy of an individual seeking public office.”

The actual words of the Iraqi soccer players themselves are pretty harsh… and deservedly so, I think. The story originally came out in Sports Illustrated, as far as I know:

…”Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign,” Sadir told SI.com through a translator, speaking calmly and directly. “He can find another way to advertise himself.”

Ahmed Manajid, who played as a midfielder on Wednesday, had an even stronger response when asked about Bush’s TV advertisement. “How will he meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women?” Manajid told me. “He has committed so many crimes.”

…But they also find it offensive that Bush is using Iraq for his own gain when they do not support his administration’s actions. “My problems are not with the American people,” says Iraqi soccer coach Adnan Hamad. “They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?”

…Manajid, 22, who nearly scored his own goal with a driven header on Wednesday, hails from the city of Fallujah. He says coalition forces killed Manajid’s cousin, Omar Jabbar al-Aziz, who was fighting as an insurgent, and several of his friends. In fact, Manajid says, if he were not playing soccer he would “for sure” be fighting as part of the resistance.

“I want to defend my home. If a stranger invades America and the people resist, does that mean they are terrorists?” Manajid says. “Everyone [in Fallujah] has been labeled a terrorist. These are all lies. Fallujah people are some of the best people in Iraq.”

And then you have these morons who post responses to this article, like the one I found at this Italian site, which was CLEARLY written by an American:

Is’nt it great that they’ve learned so quickly that their freedom allows them to speak their mind without fear of reprisals. George Bush has enabled these ingrates to speak their mind. “No good deed goes unpunished” - how true these words are. No one seems to recount the names of the US soldiers that have given their lives for these “courageous” athletes that could not muster the courage needed to oust a tyrant on their own.

I, like the athletes, wish we could withdraw all our troops so that the radicals can re-claim control and give the people of Iraq the freedom they truly deserve - none.

I can’t even begin to go into how angry those statements make me.