Shoe and Awe

December 14, 2008

Quick and forceful: Decider George dodged and ducked more than some footware today.
See the YouTube video here.

bushshoe

(Illustration found here).

Accordingly, one Muntadhar al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist with Egypt-based al-Baghdadia television network, the guy above with the shoe in his up-raised hand, threw both his footwear at Decider George this evening during a press conference in Baghdad.
I’ve watched the video several times (see HuffPost for more videos and links) and al-Zaidi didn’t hold back, he pitched one quick and hard, then in a seemingly fluent motion, whips off the other one, throws it forcefully right at Decider George’s mug.

The US president — in name only now — was in Baghdad to make whoopee on the SOFA arrangement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and he got a taste of how a lot of Middle Eastern peoples feel about the big-hat-no-cattle cowboy.
According to the Washington Post:

  • Just after Bush finished his remarks and said “Thank you” in Arabic, an Iraqi journalist took off his shoes and threw them at Bush, one after the other.
    The incident lent an air of chaos and farce to a trip intended to highlight improving security conditions in the war-torn country.
    Throwing a shoe at someone is considered the worst possible insult in Iraq and is meant to show extreme disrespect and contempt.
    When U.S. forces helped topple a statue of Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein after rolling into Baghdad in April 2003, jubilant Iraqis beat the statue’s face with their shoes.

Reportedly, al-Zaidi screamed, “It is the farewell kiss, you dog,” before he started throwing shoes.

The horrible thing: al-Zaidi failed.

Farce, Marx Brothers and the black humor of MASH: Only if Decider George’s decisions had killed and ruined a shitload of people.

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