Will wonders never cease! Good news about Iraq in the "Times." Of course, it snuck in other "other sports" in the "sports" section.
SPORTS OF THE TIMES
In Iraq, Americans Help the Children to Play
GEORGE VECSEY - NYT
HE smiles. You rarely see smiles like these on the 6 o'clock news or on the front page.
Alex Fyfe gets to see Iraqi children with a happy look on their faces, as they kick soccer balls on the dust and rocks. He thinks of the green soccer fields of Long Island and the lacrosse fields at the United States Military Academy.
"The Iraqi kids do not know what it is like to live in a society that promotes education and athletics," Fyfe wrote in an e-mail message from Iraq.
As the civil affairs officer for his battalion, based near Mosul, Fyfe's job is to improve conditions in one small corner of Iraq. With the help of many friends back home, Fyfe was able to take soccer equipment to the children.
"What they need are the resources and, more importantly, the opportunity to try new things and better themselves," Fyfe, a 26-year-old captain, wrote. "The game of soccer opened a few doors for me, and I'm hoping by helping these kids out, soccer might do the same for them."
It is hard to correlate the pleasant looks on the children's faces with the snarls of revenge on the faces of older men who mean harm to American troops. Can that vicious transition ever be averted?
Although there are disagreements over the United States' role in Iraq, a civilian back home can make this positive perception via the news media's "embedded" access: With a few odious exceptions, the troops over there are a fair representation of the best and the brightest, of what we like to think we are.
Fyfe has not come under fire the way a high school and West Point lacrosse teammate, John Fernandez, did. On April 3, 2003, Fernandez lost both feet when a bomb exploded near him.
This is the sacrifice they all were told they might have to make some day, while they were still at West Point, playing Johns Hopkins or Syracuse in lacrosse. Fernandez, the captain of the 2001 Army team, is now home, walking on prosthetic feet, awaiting the birth of his first child.
"You worry," said John Morris, who was Fyfe's first soccer coach with the Sound Beach Panthers. "At one point, three of my former players were all in Iraq. It gets personal. It's a dangerous place."
Morris was a soccer dad, an artist and sculptor, just learning the game one lesson ahead of his players, when Fyfe joined the under-8 team.
"He was very slight for his age," Morris recalled, "but he was very much the general on the field. He showed everybody how it should be done."
At Rocky Point High School, Fyfe was a central midfielder in soccer and a lacrosse midfielder — "and a point guard in basketball," his father, Bill Fyfe, quickly added. He was the first of three lacrosse players from Rocky Point to go to West Point, followed by Fernandez and Colin Burke, who is also in Iraq.
"Alex says children are the future of Iraq," said his mother, Susan. "If we can just get to them, just by being friendly, by giving them clean water, persuade them we are the good guys. He's lucky. He gets to work one on one with them. He hires contractors. He pays the bills.
"He gave them some money to build a school," Susan Fyfe continued. "He went one day to check up on the progress and walked in on the ribbon-cutting ceremony. All the kids were dressed up. They had written the name of his unit, Striker Brigade, as part of the name of the school. After that, he was invited to the headmaster's house for a meal. Alex said, `I didn't feel I was in a country at war.' "
Upon seeing children kicking a clump of straw, Fyfe sent an e-mail message to Al Ellis, his former soccer coach at Rocky Point High.
"I knew if I asked him to send one ball, he'd find a way to send 500," Fyfe said.
Ellis went to the coaches, the sporting goods stores and the Long Island Junior Soccer League, which claims 1,498 travel teams and 100,000 registered players. (Donations for Iraq are welcome at the league, which can be found online at
lijsoccer.com.)
"He said: `I felt like Santa Claus. I hope I have more days like this,' " Susan Fyfe said.
Her son added in his e-mail message: "Right now, because of security issues, my soldiers and I cannot play with the kids — yet. I will be supplying them with some jerseys, cleats and soccer balls later this week.
"Hopefully, I'll be able to get out on their dirt field and kick the ball around a little with them.
"The kids here see a soccer ball and immediately recognize the connection with us. They kick an `American' soccer ball the same way they kick an `Iraqi' soccer ball. Although our governments might disagree over certain issues and our people do not fully understand each other, we can at least enjoy soccer together."
Languages differ; ideologies clash, but in most parts of the world, if you say Maradona or Zidane or Beckham, you get a smile of recognition. In ghastly times, it is good to know children can still smile.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company |
