Medary.com

Why not?  They just did the incredible--win the Asian Cup soccer tournament.  Most of them came home, but didn't get the parade they earned.

Iraq soccer team returns home without captain

There were no cheering crowds or ticker tape parade Friday along the dangerous airport road to greet Iraq's Asian Cup soccer champs. And the team's captain, a Sunni who scored the winning goal, didn't even return because he feared for his life.
. . .

Tight security in the heart of the capital - and the team's late arrival - prevented many Baghdad residents from celebrating in the streets.

"It is an incomplete joy, because all other people welcome their winning teams in the streets of their capitals and we in Iraq had to be the last ones to receive them," said 40-year-old Naeem Abdullah.

What bigger gesture could the city that suffered the attack on September 11th make towards the country which has suffered so much since then?  What bigger gesture could the country which invaded another to overthrow a tyrant make towards that tyrant's victims than to honor their champions in the same manner we honor our own?

Give the Iraqi National Soccer Team a ticker-tape parade in New York City.

Somebody get Bloomberg on the phone . . .