Iraq beat S. Korea, but...

I was thrilled after Iraq won the game against S.Korea yesterday; i'm not really the world's biggest football fan, but this game meant a lot more than just one team winning against another.

This was the Asia-Cup semi-final game, meaning Iraq had qualified for the final on Sunday. Iraqi people finally had a reason to celebrate, finally had a reason to leave all their problems behind, their differences. Didn't matter if you were Sunni, Shiite, or Kurd; this was YOUR team playing. Iraq was one country once again, if only for a little while. Finally, one united country, once again. I was thrilled; this is what Iraq needed, something to unite their people and a good morale boost.

What really broke my heart is what I heard on the news last night; more than 50 Iraqi football fans were murdered as they cheered their team's victory, as two suicide bombs exploded. That almost brought a tear to my eye...

Day after day, you hear the news of suicide bombs going off in Iraq, violence, murders etc so sooner or later it just becomes a given that you expect to see something like that in the papers. But when the Iraqi people finally got a break, the chance to celebrate something together as one nation, and something like this happens?

When is the hate ever going to end... I pray for all the people in Iraq; may your sufferings ease, and I wish that your situation gets better with time.

الله يعين الجميع ان شاء الله