In a major turn of fortune Sunday, 11 Iraqis were not killed.

The 11 were members of the Iraq Soccer team who were in Indonesia at the time, winning the Asia Cup.

However, four Iraqis in Iraq were killed by “celebratory” gunfire¹. Miilitias apparently felt that the 50 or so killed by car bombs to celebrate the Iraqi team winning the semi-final were enough to be going on with for now.

The Onion reports that recent studies show that Iraqis may have emotions after all:
Study: Iraqis may experience sadness when friends, relatives die

We were struck by how an Iraqi reacts to the sight of the bloody or decapitated corpse of a family member in a not unlike an American, or at the very least a Canadian, would. In addition to the rage, bloodlust, and hatred we already know to dominate the Iraqi emotional spectrum, it appears that they may have some capacity, however limited, for sadness….According to Pryztal, the intensity of the grief does not diminish if the mourner experiences multiple bereavements over time. “If a woman has already lost one child, the subsequent killings of other children will evoke similar responses,” he said. “In the majority of cases we studied, it appeared as though those who lost multiple kids never actually got used to it.”

^{¹ Note to Iraqis with guns: bullets fired into the sky do not go into orbit or remain suspended in the air; they fall back to earth, often in the vicinity of crowds of happy revellers!}

[tags]Iraq, soccer, football, Asia, Asia cup, ballistics, gun, rifle, party, celebration, Indonesia, Onion, emotion, satire, humour, humor [/tags]