Is this the "American Way of Life"?

Is this the "American Way of Life"?

Updated:2006-06-14 18:47:39
Johnson Compares World Cup to War
Young Striker Says U.S. Here 'to Battle'
By RONALD BLUM
AP Sports
HAMBURG, Germany (June 14) - Eddie Johnson likened playing in the World Cup to going to war, a metaphor that came up after the U.S. forward was asked about the team's visit to a U.S. military base.

The American team will spend Thursday and Friday nights at Ramstein Air Base outside Kaiserslautern, where the United States plays Italy on Saturday. The U.S. team was housed at Ramstein before an exhibition game against Poland on March 1.

"It was a bit touching," Johnson said Wednesday. "We actually got a chance to meet with some of the soldiers that were wounded in Iraq. And to go in there, and where you come from a country where soccer's not that big ... they made us actually feel like heroes, so I thought that was pretty cool. They really were happy to see us. They were touched by us."

He said just saying hello to the troops was meaningful.

"It's like us in the World Cup. We're here for a war," the 22-year-old forward said. "We came here to battle, we came here to represent our country. And we know those guys, those same guys we visited are watching us, counting on us. So at the end of the day, it was a wonderful experience."

Later in the news conference, Johnson was asked whether he was comparing a sporting event to a war.

"Yeah," he responded. "Whenever you put your jersey on and you look at your crest and the national anthem's going on, and you're playing against a different country, it's like you do or die, it's survival of the (fittest) over 90-minutes plus. We're going to go out there and do whatever we've got to do, make tackles, do the things when the referee's not looking. ... to get three points."

Is this the "American Way of Life?"

I am Italian so... But I hope it will be a PEACEFUL, ENJOYABLE and FAIR match...

But the propaganda aroung all this is revolting. The 'patriotism", the 'US identity' to fight for???

Was this all about when the Nazi Germany would show lots of "arian" great athletes and powerful athletics games in support of the superiority of (I must have forgot what it was)???

To a lighter note. To support the football national team in Italy we say: FORZA ITALIA

But I won't even be able to say that because FORZA ITALIA is the political party of Mr. Berlusconi. ;-(

P.S. and read here:

"If the theme music from Mission Impossible runs through your head," it says, "or you get the urge to order a martini 'shaken, not stirred,' at the mention of the letters 'CIA,' '' -- why, then, you're just the kind of lawyer we want!

"We've been a major player in developing the law of national security vs. the First Amendment," the agency deadpans. "Or the Fourth Amendment. . . ." When "Americans [abroad] come across on our screen, they've got constitutional rights we've got to think about . . . . Or electronic surveillance . . . . In areas like that, we're helping to create the law, and that's a real rush."

And it's all true. The CIA is in the forefront of efforts to make sure that democracy, individual rights and stuff like that don't get in the way of our crusade for the spread of democracy, individual rights and stuff like that.

... and this article is in the Washington Post!

When will they start to label people with stars and triangles?