If war is God’s way of teaching Americans geography—an insightful observation often attributed to Mark Twain—then we Yanks must be scrambling to locate not just Iran but also Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arb Emirates—all feeling collateral damage since the United States and Israel set in motion the latest Mideast chaos.
What if, instead of this bombs-away teaching moment, we had just waited for this summer’s soccer World Cup tournament, in which 48 nations are ticketed to play at 16 sites in the U.S., Canada and Mexico? Might that be a less xenophobic, and more humane, global lesson than what the imperialist Trump and warmongering Netanyahu have wrought, their idea that apparently the only acceptable humans are those exactly like oneself.
There was a lovely essay in the New York Times this week, by former soccer professional and U.S. national team member Charlie Davies, recalling how his original introduction to the sport—and to far-off lands—was having attended a game the last time the United States hosted the World Cup in 1994. Two days shy of his 8th birthday, he took in a match in Foxboro, Mass., between Bolivia and South Korea—countries, Davies wrote, “I had never heard of.”
What he remembered was “seeing so many people from all walks of life gathering….There were tailgates with all different foods and people playing pickup soccer….strangers gave you high fives….”
Now that’s the way to learn about the rest of the world.
Instead, we are reminded of past U.S. Presidents ordering American youth toward early graves by visiting violence upon Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam—quagmires that didn’t solve much in the name of democracy or future peace. Country Joe McDonald just died; is that why I’m hearing the cynical anti-war lyrics from his 1969 Woodstock appearance in my head so loud and clear?
It’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn; next stop is Vietnam.
And it’s five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates.
No time to wonder why, Whoopie! we’re all gonna die!
An early, ancillary consequence of the war in Iran is directly connected to the 2026 World Cup, a real possibility that Iran’s national team—the first to qualify for the tournament—will now be forced to forego its appearance in the Cup, either by being barred from entering the United States or simply choosing not to subject itself to ICE-related crackdowns.
Simon Chadwick, a professor of Afro-Eurasian sport at the Emlyon Business School in Shanghai, told Al Jazeera that, “Ultimately, the diplomatic solution [will be] that Iran itself just steps aside and withdraws from the tournament…
“Given that they [Iran] are going to have to play their games in the U.S.”—first-round matches in Los Angeles and Seattle—“I find it unlikely that they will be there….It’s very difficult to see the U.S. allowing players, backroom staff and officials to enter the county.”
And it’s highly unlikely that those games, set for mid-to-late June, will be moved to Canada or Mexico at this late date.
Simon Kuper, author of the book “World Cup Fever,” noted in a Times op-ed piece that the dominant mood in the nine World Cups he has attended “is almost always international friendship.” But “that is not the spirit of the United States under the Trump administration….
“The United States’ basic message to foreigners seems to be: We hate you. The feeling is mutual. Many of the world’s soccer fans are dreading a tournament in a country that a growing number of foreigners are afraid even to visit.”
So, even if Iran’s team participates in the Cup—“I don’t really care,” Trump said dismissively—its citizens face a Trump administration travel ban. Senegal, Ivory Coast and Haiti—all Cup qualifies—also are on that list.
Then there have been hints by some European leaders, because Trump has threatened to invade Greenland, that their nations should boycott the World Cup; even Sepp Blatter, the former president of FIFA (soccer’s global governing body), made a call to “stay away” from the United States. And don’t even mention current FIFA boss Gianni Infantino’s sycophantic award of the organization’s weird “peace prize” presented in December to Trump.
Anyway, should Iran fail to show up—either by choice or American force—World Cup organizers most likely would replace it with the team from Iraq. Which recalls how the 2003 George W. Bush war, waged on false claims that Iraq possessed “weapons of mass destruction,” similarly touched the soccer competition at the 2004 Athens Olympics—another international sports festival that ought to be a better source of geographical instruction.
At those Games a quarter century before the 2026 World Cup—before the ICE age—there was a highly sensitive diplomatic dance over whether the United States might provide armed guards for its athletes, against the Greeks’ insistence on controlling law enforcement matters with assistance from NATO.
Iraq was slated for the Olympics soccer opener in Patras. (Consult the atlas, fellow Americans; Patras, on the Peloponnese peninsula, is Greece’s third largest city, 133 miles from Athens). Iraq’s national team had been forced to play Olympic qualifying “home” games in Jordan because American bombs had damaged Baghdad’s stadium and, anyway, no visiting squads were willing to travel to Iraq.
Sepp Blatter was at the game—Iraq vs. pre-Olympic medal favorite Portugal—as were hundreds of singing, dancing Iraqi ex-pats, some them living in Greece, some in Australia and other lands in between, expressing what several called a connection to “family.” No untoward events materialized as Iraq won, 4-2, eventually advancing to the Olympic bronze-medal game (a loss to Italy).
But the Bush war had hung over the proceedings; several U.S. athletes spoke of “American hate,” of fans and athletes from other nations who “watch the news and they have their opinions.”
Really, there must be a better way than war to educate them. And us.