I'd be remiss if I didn't post this

Congratulations to the Iraqi soccer team:

غير مسبوق بإحرازه كأس اسيا للامم الرابعة عشرة بكرة القدم عندما تغلب مساء
اليوم الاحد على المنتخب السعودي بهدف دون رد في العاصمة الاندنوسية جاكارتا

واحرز هدف المباراة الوحيد يونس محمود بكرة رأسية من ضربة زاوية في الدقيقة 72
وسط سيطرة في اغلب دقائق المباراة مع استسلام واضح من الفريق السعودي الذي وصل
المباراة النهائية باستحقاق.

وحمل لاعبونا الكأس الاغلى اسيويا وسط فرحة امتدت من جاكارتا الى العراق، حيث
خرج المواطنون احتفالا رغم حظر التجوال الذي فرضته القوات الامنية حفاظا على سلامة
الجماهير

Of course there were some problems. Al-Hayat is reporting 48 people killed by celebratory gunfire. And there's this:

Iraq won the Asian for the first time Sunday, a beacon of hope for a nation divided by war.

Iraq’s 1-0 victory over Saudi Arabia on a 71st-minute header by captain Younis Mahmoud was an inspirational triumph for a team whose players straddle bitter and violent ethnic divides. After the game, Mahmoud called for the United States to withdraw its troops from his nation.

“I want America to go out,” he said. “Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but out. I wish the American people didn’t invade Iraq and, hopefully, it will be over soon.”Mahmoud also said he will not return to Iraq to celebrate.

“I don’t want the Iraqi people to be angry with me,” he said. “If I go back with the team, anybody could kill me or try to hurt me.”

I'm sure that our shrub will tell us that "we're makin' progress".
(side note: blogger seems totally incapable of properly formatting block quotes in Arabic. Anybody know any tricks? 'Cause the report above is really hard to read laid out like that).