Posted on 12/30/2008 1:59:21 PM PST by naturalman1975
THE media took great delight in reporting the encounter between US President George W. Bush and a pair of flying shoes during his final visit to Iraq two weeks ago. But the great bastions of free speech missed the true significance of an Arab reporter throwing his shoes during a press conference in Baghdad.
Bush has long maintained that it would be a fine thing to see the emergence of some basic Western values in the Arab world. Values such as freedom of expression. Perhaps the return to Iraq of a bit of shoe-throwing as the ultimate sign of Arab disgust is a healthy sign of a democracy, warts and all, taking hold. Iraqis had to wait until Saddam Hussein was dead before they threw their shoes en masse at his toppling statue.
Puerile as it is as a form of expression, Iraqis can now throw shoes freely at any leader, including the outgoing leader of the free world. So maybe Bush’s final visit to Iraq is, after all, a healthy sign of democratic values taking root. What a shame those same values have, over a period of years, been uprooted in the West.
If 2006 will be remembered as the year the West rolled over when tested on free speech - think the Danish cartoons, which large swaths of the media refused to publish for fear of causing offence - two years on, things are worse.
The year 2008 deserves to be seen as a year of anticipatory surrender, a year when the West decided to roll over on free speech of its own accord. Just in case. No threats. No demands. Just suppress controversial speech in advance, just in case it causes offence. You understand, we don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings....
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Keep yourself occupied for ALL free speech.
It would have been worth folding money to see "W" pick up the shoes and throw them back!! What a SNL skit that would make.
An article that will never see the light of day in on an American editorial page. Sigh.
HT the Corner.
“The mistake we can never repeat is stifling criticism of cultures and religions for reasons of tolerance”.
Lilianne Ploumen, the Dutch Labour Party “chairperson”
Excellent point...Saddam would have stuffed him into the paper shredder after raping and beheading his wife.
Only if they want the crap kicked out of themselves and/or if they want to spend a few years in jail for assault...
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