At Least They Didn't Play The Star-Spangled Banner

It's a beautiful day in Iraq. (Really!) The Iraqi soccer team brought some rare joy to a nation that's, uh, in some turmoil by winning the Asian Cup. Everyone's ecstatic, it's something to cheer about, it's a wonderful thing. And then.

The Iraqi team stood on the podium waiting to be awarded their medals. The music swells; the crowd goes nuts. A moment of national pride ... and then they played the Saddam-era Iraqi national anthem.

Some players and members of the Iraqi delegation walked out in protest when the organizers put on Saddam's anthem instead of the country's new one, according to Bassam al-Husseini, a representative of Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who flew with the team. After Saddam's overthrow, new Iraqi authorities selected "Mawtini," a folk tune popular throughout the Arab world, to replace the old anthem which glorified Saddam's Baath party.

They blamed a surely-to-be-fired-soon music technician for playing the wrong song. Those Iraqis, man; can't catch a break. Someone should do something, maybe.

Oops! Iraqi Soccer Team Welcomed By Saddam's Anthem [Lion In Oil]