Dennis Prager: This year's Ingrate of the Year Award goes to...: "Ahmed Al-Samarri, Iraq's Olympic Committee president, acknowledged this when he said: 'Women's sports started from ground zero here because of the previous regime, which had abused many, many girls who wish to practice or join sports.'
Yet, the one Iraqi woman athlete at the Athens Olympics, Ala'a Jassim, told American reporters that the American invasion of Iraq 'was a very bad idea.'
Likewise, Ahmad Manajid, a midfielder for the Iraqi soccer team, when asked about a pro-Bush ad that shows the Iraqi soccer team playing as free men, asked reporters, 'How will he (Bush) meet his God having slaughtered so many men and women?' According to Sports Illustrated, he added that he would be killing Americans in Iraq if he were not playing soccer.
'There is so much hate on this team for America,' said Bernd Stange, the German who coached the Iraqi team until he resigned in July.
One great lesson of American history is that one does good in this world because it is right to do good, not because the recipients will be grateful. We Americans must therefore never judge the rightness of our actions on how much gratitude or censure we receive. So long as we remain the most blessed country on earth, it is our duty to do as much good as we can. In fact, if we don't, we will cease to be blessed.
But the ingrates still deserve the contempt of decent people."
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FYI