Al the Shoe Salesman?
Posted on 12/15/2008 4:43:52 PM PST by autumnraine
BAGHDAD: A day after an Iraqi television journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush at a news conference here Sunday, his act of defiance toward the American commander in chief reverberated throughout Iraq and across the Arab world.
In Sadr City, the sprawling Baghdad suburb that has seen some of the most intense fighting between insurgents and U.S. soldiers since the 2003 invasion, thousands of people marched in his defense. In Syria, he was hailed as a hero. In Libya, he was given an award for courage.
Throughout much of the Arab world Monday, the shoe-throwing incident generated front-page headlines and continuing television news coverage. A thinly veiled glee could be discerned in much of the reporting, especially in the places where anti-American sentiment runs deepest.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
If he threw a shoe at any other Middle Eastern leader, he'd be dead, or at best, imprisoned and tortured for a good long while. And I mean real torture. Not bright lights and loud music. They'd work him over for months, until his own family wouldn't recognize him.
Being able to throw your shoe at a major leader without facing execution or savage repercussions is something no one in the Islamic world has. Iraq is the only place where they people would attempt such, dare I say, freedom of expression.
Bush is the real hero, in that he made a country this journalist can safely protest in. The Arabs can cheer all they like, but they themselves are powerless to protest against their own tyrants.
Yes, as soon as he’s released, Keith Odderman will be fly him to the studios for several rounds of interviews.
My first instinct is to say President Bush should announce tomorrow that all American troops and equipment will be out within 30 days.
When Iran takes them over, let them throw shoes at them.
This was a failed experiment. I had hope, but now I see that you cannot make a Muslim nation a democracy. There is something lacking in the mentality.
My oldest worn out filthy shoes are aimed at Damascus, Riyahd and the usual places.
Aren’t we all just proud and glad we “saved” these people.
Where to we go get a refund. Even God is laughing at us.
Why would you let American foreign policy be controlled by a jackass throwing his shoes?
The Arabs know the reality of all this, the rest is posturing. Most of their governments would fall to radicals or aggressive neighbors if we didn’t back them up. They feel powerless to what we did in Iraq which is why they act out with shoes. Those that acted out with guns are dead.
Because it’s not just the jackass throwing the shoe, it’s the thousands of people cheering him on.
No longer, as evidenced by this incident. The Mideast has been changed, for the better, forever, by Bush.
P.S. - Bush sure does move quick, and he comes up smiling. Same guy that threw the post 9/11 strike at Yankee stadium. The kind of guy you want in the foxhole with you, unlike the pansy, cut-and-run Dems.
“None in this nation are doing what should be done. Not even you or me.”
You and I were not there. Before he could have gotten the second shoe thrown, he should have been greased by our Secret Service. If anyone was in the line of fire, to bad. The Iraqi’s were lax to allow this person to get into this meeting. Sadr city should be leveled and Syria and Libya bombed into the pre-stone age.
Al the Shoe Salesman?
“This was a failed experiment. I had hope, but now I see that you cannot make a Muslim nation a democracy. There is something lacking in the mentality.”
I’m afraid you’re right. :(
Shoe toss proves Iraq now enjoys democratic freedoms. Saddam Hussein never allowed shoe tossing, ever.
The back end of my toilet faces Mecca … there, take that Mohammed.
Fast becoming a Cover story to focus attn. away from Obama ?
Sorry .. I ain’t buying what the MSM IS selling . . .Mombai is the “Reverb” in the Arab world and Bush has keep us safe in the USA.
Chunking Shoes we can certainly handle with ease.
Cover Obama MSM . . QUIT trying to focus Attn. elsewhere.
I would have loved it if Bush caught the shoe and threw it back.
I thought immediately that he probably knows some of the Code Pink leaders personally.
If I were Obama I would be very concerned over this development. It shows a total failure of the security protecting the US president. Where was the Secret Service? What if the idiot had thrown a knife, shot a gun at the president, thrown a bottle filled with acid, and what if Bush had been hurt? It would have created an international incident.
The picture of this guy makes him look like a typical stupid liberal in America, his laughing face reminds me of the morons who post on Huffpo daily: glad when Sarah Palin’s church is burned down, but irate if Obama is asked a difficult question on the Blago situation.
I had to laugh.
He moved like a guy that had shoes thrown at him before:’)
Now, now, we know that's not polite, or politically correct.
Besides, that thing on their heads is not a "towel". It's actually a small folded cloth, like a miniature bed-sheet. For the sake of accuracy, you really shouldn't call them "towelheads".
You should call them "little sheet-heads"....
[snort]
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