The sole might have been size 10. But the man who wore it was size zero.
The uncouth Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at President Bush during a press conference in Baghdad last week is now being lionised in many Islamic countries. (The Taliban have announced that they will intercede to secure his release from Iraqi authorities.) Of course, those who dislike Mr Bush have been smirking too. These people don’t realise that by throwing those two shoes Muntazir al-Zaidi paid the highest compliment to Mr Bush—he proved that regardless of the political chaos in their country, the Iraqis have freedom.
No one would have dared to try this under Saddam Hussein’s regime. At any rate, as Offstumped tweeted (through a telepathic intercept) no one would have gotten away alive and unhurt.
yep. and the people especially Indians who rejoiced at this cowardice are probably size minus 1.
>>The sole might have been size 10. But the man who wore it was size zero.
Ten out of ten for putting it so well.
Bush did not transform the USA into a liberal democracy. This happened over hundreds of years.
He again will not transform Iraq into a liberal democracy. If the journalist threw these shoes at an Islamic cleric instead of Bush, he would be dead.
The credit for this goes not to Bush, but to the liberal democracy that the USA built, and all that it entails.
Allowing close access and proximity to national and international political leaders is a privilege bestowed upon journalists which they would be ill-advised to throw away. All manner of rogues, thugs and dictators will now use this incident as an excuse to not have to meet the press at all, expcet on their terms and all that. Imagine how much better Hu Jintao can now be shielded from those pesky reporters, as if his ilk needed any more excuses.
It doesn’t come as a surprise to me that infant democracies may harbor infantile journalists.
With all due respect, this is an unnecessary cheap shot. Oh yeah, there may be a small matter of a million deaths, but hey, they have democracy! What an ungrateful wretch.
What a fall for liberal American values – they have to be held up as beacons against dictators they bring down (or prop up). There’s no need to lionise the Bushies’ brand of liberation just because the Islamists are cheering.
Rational Fool, what of the sophisticated, nuanced American press that did not ask inconvenient questions? They were not infantile, for sure. They knew what they were doing.
NK,
Sycophancy does not surprise me, either, but generally speaking, it’s easier to deal with in democracy than in totalitarianism 🙂
As much if not more people have died after Bush’s invasion/war of liberation (whatever be your political leaning) of Iraq. isn’t it telling that there is no nearest estimate of how many Iraqis have died while there is a precise estimate of the US dead — neatly divided into combatants, non-combatants etc.
There is the support of the invasion/WoL and the resistance.
Both, those in power as well as those opposing it have developed a symbiotic relationship. Those opposing power place irrational and infinite demands and the those in power use the realist arguments to say “well, we live in a real world and we have to be realistic”. This is the problem of the left. They need to start making strategically selected, precise, and finite demands. Then those in power cannot make excuses such as those made by Bush and yourself.