The biggest debate now is which sport that represents our country and why soccer will be always the future sport in America. lots of sports fans raise the question of which president candidates is the real man when it comes to sports. The conservatives would like to portray Obama by shifting position and retreating from the real America, are the same people who portray president Bush stubbornness and steadfast position to top gun mission accomplished kind of a people. But to really understand the contrast positions between the simplistic conservative (myopic unilateral and go it alone) and the complicated contradictory one of liberal (shifting multilateral internationalist), you need to look elsewhere; you need to look at the contrast of the American football and world football (soccer) game. President Bush’s position represents the game of American football; that is always about exceptionalism, being different and being special, and the one that sets us apart form the rest of the world. President Bush for example is not moved and was utterly surprised when the rest of the world didn’t agree with him. With his sense of entitlement he believes that the rest of the world should follow his lead; he is the world quarterback, and once he calls the play you had better run his direction or you are out of the play (contracts). For him, winning is all about physical elimination of the enemy (opponents) and acquiring their territories on the field all the way to the end zone (Kabul, Baghdad). Obama position on the other hand represents the game of world football (soccer), it is inclusive, eloquent complex and multi-nationals, in world football (soccer) it is not so much about occupation of territories; world football (soccer) is about shifting position, maneuvering and running a series of attacks and retreats, wining without physical elimination. American is about staying the course, in your face overly specialized; when you are on the offense there is no retreat. Soccer however is about retreat from defense to offense with such fluidity, in soccer you need to understand not just your skills and capabilities but at the same time avoids the opponent’s strengths. American has been always the American way of inviting people from allover world to the American way; in the other hand world football (soccer) invites people from all over the world to be a world football (soccer) fan, a citizen of the world; so to get us out of the quagmire of Iraq we need to a president who plays world football (soccer) not American football ; and speaking a foreign language won’t heart either.
Ahmed Tharwat
Producer/Host of the Arab American TV Show Belahdan
www.belahdan.com
