Post blogger Mitch Mulhall points out that a loss for the Iraqi soccer team won’t mean torture. “A loss would have meant that players who Uday Hussein perceived to be playing poorly could look forward to having the soles of their feet caned—inflicting intense pain without leaving visible marks on the rest of their bodies,” he blogs. “A player’s ankles would be tied to a rod about shoulder’s length apart. The rod would be hoisted about three feet off the ground. Sometimes, Uday himself would administer the caning, bringing down a furious barrage of strikes against the soles of the soccer player’s feet, the very part of the body that makes a soccer player an athlete.”