I commend Muntazer al Zaidi for throwing his shoes at W. Bush. If I am not mistaken (and I’m not), the entire Arab and Muslim world…and most probably many Americans commend him too. I personally haven’t been able to stop laughing all day! Arab TV stations have been repeating the footage over and over again and from every possible angle. Throwing your shoe at someone or hitting someone with your shoe, is a very humiliating insult in the Arab world. So bravo Zaidi and shame on American and international media who has been hearing Bush’s crap for years without daring so much as to challenge or corner him with embarrassing questions. Bravo Zaidi! You gave Bush the “good-bye kiss” he deserved.
I’ve been watching some American media to see their coverage of the event. Richard Engel of MSNBC tried to do what he does best from Baghdad: Lie. He explains that Zaidi “went crazy for a moment” and “just snapped”. Engel in defense of Bush’s embarrassment explains that Zaida must have” lost family” in the war or must have been from “Sadr city” as though it were some kind of crime to be from Sadr city. The only reason embedded “reporters” like Richard Engel portray Sadr city as a city of “villains”, is because it is a city which will not yield to US occupation and which is driving the US crazy. Richard Engel also ends his coverage from Baghdad by saying that even Iraqi journalists “ended up by feeling sorry for Bush”. What utter rubbish! It is amazing how Engel has been twisting news for Americans on daily basis. Today, he failed to report that the reporters who expressed sympathy with al Zaidy were arrested along with him and he failed to inform the Americans that already 100 Iraqi lawyers among which is Khalil al Dulaymi (Saddam’s lawyer) volunteered to defend al Zaidi for free. Shame on Richard Engel’s continuous complicit reporting.
The board of directors of Al Baghdadia TV channel for which al Zaidi works has issued an official request for the immediate release of al Zaidi since Iraq is now “a new democracy” (!?). The board also noted that should Zaidi be mistreated or tortured in any way, it would mean that the new Iraqi regime is no different from the old Iraqi regime (Saddam’s).
Back to Mr. Engel the liar. In case he misunderstood the impact of what happened to his president in Iraq today, let me as an Arab explain. His president was the laughing stock of the Middle East and well beyond I am sure. He was insulted, shamed and dragged through the mud publicly on satellite TV. We the Arab public, enjoyed the show tremendously and saw the footage not once but dozens and dozens of times throughout the day because it was continuously repeated everywhere.
Al Zaidi told Bush “This is a good-bye kiss from the Iraqi people you dog!” but believe me, Zaidi was speaking for much more than himself and the Iraqi people. This was a goodbye kiss from the entire Near East.
Submitted by Cherifa Sirry on Mon, 2008-12-15 05:16
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Watching the video, that was a pretty good reflex, almost like he has alot of practice ducking out of the way of hurled objects.
okie, it was hilarious to watch Bush dodging flying shoes but I think it was staged. Don't they pre screen the journalists, reporters for a long time before letting them in presidential press events? hey .... I would've believed it if the secend shoe really hit his forehead or something ... damn, that didn't happen, sucha bummer!
Pres Bush is my first pick for dodge ball now.
for explaining what you saw and heard for the readers who refuse to tune in "Idiot Box".
As an American of Irish-British-German extract, I am sorry that Bush-Cheney Administration is a wretched affair on the civilized world. I participated in the protest opposing the impending U.S.-Coalition invasion of Iraq in http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/9536February 2003. Then it happened.
5 years later, over a million innocent Iraqis died. And many more were sacrificed including American and Coalition soldiers being used as expendable pawns.
I wish that heroic journalist hits Bush in the face with the shoe twice. The world, sick and disgusted with Bush's lies and spin as an unindicted war criminal, stands up and cheer.
I stand in solidarity with the Arab-Persian world (except for the sycophantic cowards like Saudi Royalty) in expression the condemnation of Bush-Cheney Neocon Cabal crime syndicate.
My dream is to see them get detained, face trial, found guilty on dozens of counts ranging from lying to murder to violation of the Constitution and send them to the death row -- resurrecting the tradition of the gallow to hang the most odious of traitors to satisfy not revenge but justice to restore honor and decency in moral clarification for the U.S.'s conscience.
goes to .......
..the first shoe would have beaned him, had he not looked.
for not throwing those shoes earlier.
Watch the press conference about 10 minutes or so before the shoes fly and you'll hear Bush mouth lie after lie, all the while that smirk keeps dancing across his face.
He's probably in some CIA sponsored torture site, like Abu Ghraib, where they'll painfully show him the true face of American ME diplomacy.