On July 29 th, the Iraqi national soccer team became what any leader in Iraq has failed to be -- a symbol of cooperation and optimism.
Their victory in the Asian Cup has, for a short moment, galvanized a people and reminded them of the idea that is Iraq.
In a battle that has become as much about words as it is about bullets, the Iraqis (and indeed the Americans) now have their poster child to counteract the adroit public relations campaign put on by the insurgency.
The only way to win an emotional war is with emotions.
The negativity spread by Iraq's insurgents, regardless of where they come from, has a new enemy: optimism.
The Iraqi team did not represent Shiite or Sunni interests, they did not play for one group or another.
They played for Iraq.
And they did not play for the land we called Iraq, created with historically arbitrary borders, they played for the idea of Iraq.
Iraq represents a belief that there can be a thriving and open democratic society in the Arabian Gulf.
And on July 29th, hope was restored that this belief still has some life left in it.
But like so many fateful events in the world, if the momentum is not seized it will be lost.
Like any company or leader, those with any influence in Iraq must capitalize on the event to build momentum.
The actions that must be taken to continue to spread optimism in Iraq are no different to any political campaign or corporate branding effort.
A clear cause must be articulated and that cause must have something physical to embody the cause -- a person, a symbol or an event.
The notion of "democracy" is too abstract to galvanize a population.
You can't touch democracy or put its face on a poster or build a statue of it.
Numbers and facts just don't work as well.
The part of our brains that understand facts and numbers and such abstractions do not control feelings or behavior.
Ronald Reagan proved the power of symbols when he first pointed to person in the balcony at his State of the Union Addresses to bring to life the impact of abstract policies (now standard practice at every subsequent State of the Union Address).
These symbols serve not only breath to life the cause, but they give something for people to rally around.
For people to believe in.
The Civil Rights movement had Martin Luther King.
Americans have the Constitution.
Al Qaeda has the war in Iraq.
And now Iraq has its soccer team.
Dr.
Drew Weston tells us in his new book, The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation, the importance of emotion over facts to influence a population in a political campaign.
Where the American military has been the emotional lightning rod to rally an insurgency in Iraq, the Iraqi soccer team can now serve as a more optimistic vision of with can be.
Iraqis now have the opportunity to point to something positive and tangible and say, "we want that.
" A campaign must now be launched to spread the idea and keep it alive.
Posters of the Iraqi soccer team should be hung everywhere in Iraq with words like "We Only Win If We Play Together.
We Are All Iraqis.
" American and Iraqi politicians should speak of the team as representative of the idea that is Iraq.
Every speech should now start with, "Just like the Iraqi soccer team proved to us, the only way we can bring optimism back to Iraq is if we work together.
Not as Shiites or Sunnis or Kurds but as Iraqis.
The team proved it can be done.
Let us do it again.
" This will then provide the context for any future plans.
And even if there is disagreement in the details of the plans, there will be a common cause that will reduce the likelihood of additional tension or violence.
I understand the struggle is a complicated one, but this is a vital step to getting on the right track -- making tangible a very intangible cause.
There is now a positive physical symbol of that cause.
The opportunity is to use that symbol to spread optimism and hope again.
If the Iraqi people feel optimistic about the future, they will come together to help defeat the forces of negativity and bring something special to Iraq.
Still don't believe it can be done? But the Iraqi soccer team just won the Asian Cup...
This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post on August 9, 2007