Via Belmont Club a week ago came the news that the Iraqi soccer team had qualified for the Olympics. Some idea were floated about how to help either the team of the fans :

It certainly represents a huge opportunity to offset the negative publicity of Abu Ghraib. A variation on the theme JB suggests is creating a raffle for tickets that Iraqis can win to actually attend the games in Athens. Most Iraqis are too poor to attend the games themselves and their cheering squad, unless filled out by Americans, will be thin at best. Maybe they should have a chance to cheer on the home team themselves.

Then in this morning’s Telegraph we see this :

On one side was the Iraqi national team; young men glowing with fitness, not a paunch among them, parading their silky soccer skills. On the other was the British Parliamentary team.
After an 11-0 drubbing, Tony Clarke, the Labour member for Northampton South, who was taken off after 43 minutes to save him further punishment, was magnanimous in defeat.
“They were quick, young, organised and skilful. We are old and fat and disorganised. For the first 10 minutes we could not get the ball and for the rest it seemed we didn’t want it.”

So here’s an idea. Can we raise a soccer team out of the 635 members of Congress ? Well, maybe not eh ? Not without a few heart attacks. So why not a US soccer team v the Iraqi team in DC? Market it as a charitable event. All monies raised to help support the Iraqi team and fill a few flights with fans to see them in Athens. Anyone wnat to run with that ?