The Mesopotamian Cup

So according to the Beeb yesterday, nearly half of the Iraqi asylum seekers knocking on the EU's door hope to wind up in Sweden. We're not exactly sure what they're playing at, but when a Baghdadi stares at this or modish pseudo-socialist furniture, I suppose the choice is clear.

The Beeb says many of the new batch of refugees (some 10,000 a year) are from the Shia centre and south of Iraq--and not members of the longstanding Assyrian community, who have transformed the Swedish town of Södertälje into a Scandinavian Nineveh since their arrival in the 1970s. Their club, Assyriska Föreningen, is the veritable Chaldean national team (its owner, Sargon DeBasso, is named like the great-grandfather of the great Ashurbanipal, builder of libraries, vanquisher of his foes, and last scribe of Gilgamesh, Lord of the House of Dust), but unfortunately also happens to be Sweden's version of Crystal Palace. One can only hope that the new Iraqis integrate into Europe the proper way: by forming Babylonska FC and reigning terror on the cities of their enemies.