Iraqi Journalist Throws Shoes At Bush..Misses

[Tin Foil Timothy]

Where would he be now if he had done that to Saddam Hussein? Yeah Chemical Ali and Saddam Hussein were such good guys compared to Dick Cheney or George W. Bush. Sure Iraq is corrupt but Iraq is a better place without Saddam Hussein and of course UN disagrees with that because of the Oil for Food scandal.

If only.

 

[Sefarst]

I am not so sure some people on this page would sing a different tune if a grenade had been thrown,sad to say.provided Bush was hit.
I am no fan of W, but the level of hatred reaches the psychotic .

I agree. I voted against Bush, but I think he genuinely believed he was doing the right thing invading Iraq. Careless acts like those of the reporter and the mindlessness of those who will cheer with excitement at anything anti-Bush ensures that the Politics forum will continue to live up to its reputation as the place where critical thinking goes to die.

 

[WildCat]

puppet Iraqi government.

Quite a trick to get a country to vote for a puppet in a free election!

BDS, once again.

 

[Sefarst]

I'm pretty sure he knew that his actions would put himself in danger. I think the source of that danger was Bush and his puppet Iraqi government.

Please cut the crap. The source of the danger was a reporter so obsessed with seeking personal satisfaction that he would hurl a pointless insult that could easily be construed as attempted assassination in a room crowded with people and armed guards. You've heard of yelling fire in a crowded theater, right?

People in the French Resistance put themselves and their families in serious danger by resisting the German occupation. I have a tough time condemning their actions in the light of the horrors caused by the aggressor they were struggling against.

People in the French Resistance weren't throwing shoes at an outgoing president who wouldn't even be relevant in a couple of months. People in the French Resistance didn't have the free speech and right to speak and act out in other ways against those they disagreed with.

Are you really trying to equate throwing a shoe with the anti-Nazi resistance of WWII?

 

[gtc]

Irony = nil. That's because (1) the guy is in jail and (2)

Yes. I just read that detail. I hope he gets released soon, but at least he is still alive - which is more than would have happened under Saddam.

I don't imagine that throwing shoes at an American president named Bush would have been a problem under Saddam.

The point I was making is that the Iraqi leader was beside Bush at the time. Throwing a shoe at someone Saddam was hosting a press conference with would not have been a healthy thing to do.

 

[Darth Rotor]

I wonder at how the Iraqi PM felt about the breach of manners this reporter engaged in. One thing about Muslim culture that I am aware of are the general norms of manners and social forms. This was a breach, and a bit of an embarassment for Iraq.


If the guy was from Sadr City, I can appreciate his profound frustration. It was a slum under Saddam's day where things were bad, almost a Shia ghetto. SInce the invasion, for a variety of reasons, it has been a place where gunplay and explosions are far too commonplace. I get why he vented as he did. An Iraqi version of Code Pink, sort of.

DR

 

[gtc]

Indeed. Cluelessness was what I saw. I doubt anyone knew what was thrown the first time, at least not right away. Shrub just stands there, seemingly unaware he's in a country that, for a large part, hates him.

In the videos I saw, he ducked.

Bush is not the president of Iraq. I know he struggles with the concept of "sovereign country" but I though you knew better.

Who was standing next to Bush at the conference?

People in the French Resistance put themselves and their families in serious danger by resisting the German occupation. I have a tough time condemning their actions in the light of the horrors caused by the aggressor they were struggling against.

Bush = Hitler and Al Qaeda = The French Resistance.

I didn't think I'd hear that meme again.

BDS, once again.

I wonder how they will reconcile the fact that Bush is giving up his Presidency after serving his 2 terms with their belief that he is Hitler?

Maybe they'll decide Obama is in on 'it' too.

 

[jadebox]

It's Okay to Laugh

Headline News keeps running commercials for its comedy show, Not Just Another Cable News Show. The commercial includes a clip of Fidel Castro falling. Yep, that's comedy ... an old man falling ... breaking his arm and leg.

Bush, on the other hand, was not hurt by the shoe incident, Bush ducked, and the shoe missed him. And, he was the first to make a joke about it.

"Shoe. Fly. Don't bother me," is how Bush described it, I think.

-- Roger

 

[Dr Adequate]

Iraqis Renouce Terrorism, Embrace Surrealism

Following yesterday's shoe-throwing incident in Baghdad, Iraq has seen fresh outbursts of surrealism as students took to the streets brandishing flaming tubas and shouting Dadaist slogans. In Basra angry mobs waved umbrellas at a fretwork badger while singing a medley of tunes from The Sound of Music.

This new development in the conflict is thought to have stemmed from an incident earlier this month, when Shi'ite extremists responded to a sectarian bombing of their headquarters by exhibiting a huge canvas covered in rancid bean soup and entitled Absolutely The Last Words Of Arthur Flegenheimer.

While Muslim traditionalists insist that representational art is still forbidden, they have offered a cautious welcome to the surrealist movement. "There is nothing in shari'a law prohibiting 'happenings', Situationism, and radical deconstructions of the subject-object distinction", explained prominent theologian and art critic Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, adding "but cartoons of Mohammed are still right out, OK?"

Reaction from around the world has been enthusiastic. "It's good to see the Iraqi people moving away from the repressive influence of their Islamic past," commented one well-known Eurotrash poseur. "You know, all that geometry and interlace. Done the the Alhambra, darling, bought the postcards, but it's all so it's so fourteenth century, isn't it? What does it have to say about the modern world, the vie humaine?"

Meanwhile President-elect Obama is known to have ordered five tons of pink glitter and some glue, and is rumored to be working on a monumental sculpture of a happy unicorn, to be installed in front of the Lincoln Memorial. "It's kitsch", explained a helpful Obama aide. Yes --- but is it Art?

 

[Toke]

I wonder what happened to the shoethrower, a fine for public disturbance, or a oneway trip to some terrorist detension center?

 

[gtc]

I wonder what happened to the shoethrower, a fine for public disturbance, or a oneway trip to some terrorist detension center?

The journalist, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, was being held by Iraqi security on Monday and interrogated about whether anybody had paid him to throw his shoes at Bush during a press conference on Sunday in Baghdad, said an Iraqi official.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/iraqis-demand-release-of-shoehurler/2008/12/16/1229189564564.html

 

[Tin Foil Timothy]

I'm pretty sure he knew that his actions would put himself in danger. I think the source of that danger was Bush and his puppet Iraqi government.

People in the French Resistance put themselves and their families in serious danger by resisting the German occupation. I have a tough time condemning their actions in the light of the horrors caused by the aggressor they were struggling against.

Some people today are called terrorists for resisting occupation. Funny how things change isn't it?

 

[Tin Foil Timothy]

Who was standing next to Bush at the conference?

Dunno, but they hid the strings well.

 

[godless dave]

I think it's clear that, as a whole, Iraqis need to work on their aim.

Good show, Mr. Zaidi. American reporters won't even throw questions at Bush.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Some people today are called terrorists for resisting occupation. Funny how things change isn't it?

The rhetoric from the Bush group was that "insurgents" (at one time dead enders, which turned out to be false) for some of them fighting the foreigners in their country. However, the foreign fighters were called various things, to include terrorists, as were the terrorist cells, like Al Zarqawi's group (he was Jordanian, in case you weren't aware) who did things like blow up markets places and police recruiting stations where Iraqis, not foreigners, were standing in line.

why do I bother

 

[Tin Foil Timothy]

Quite a trick to get a country to vote for a puppet in a free election!

It's very easy. The USA and UK have been successfully been pulling it off for years.

 

[Travis]

It's very easy. The USA and UK have been successfully been pulling it off for years.

You know the Iraqi Government is a "Puppet Government" how? By observing they do things you disagree with?

 

[dudalb]

I am really afraid that Al Qaeda and Islamic entremists have found their share of "Useful Idiots" here.

Some people today are called terrorists for resisting occupation. Funny how things change isn't it?

So you support placing bombs in marketplaces, and kidnapping and executing journalist?
But then you are a 9/11 Truther so I should not be surprised.

 

[Tin Foil Timothy]

The rhetoric from the Bush group was that "insurgents" (at one time dead enders, which turned out to be false) for some of them fighting the foreigners in their country. However, the foreign fighters were called various things, to include terrorists, as were the terrorist cells, like Al Zarqawi's group (he was Jordanian, in case you weren't aware) who did things like blow up markets places and police recruiting stations where Iraqis, not foreigners, were standing in line.

why do I bother

As bad as that is it can't compete with the majestic carnage of the invaders who were not only complicit in softening up sanctions which killed hundreds of thousands, blew up the whole country and crassly called it 'shock and awe', dismantled the security system allowing looting and street wars, the creation of 4.5 million Iraqi refugees, the creation of illegal laws which gave Blackwater mercenary thugs to go around shooting up Iraqis for fun with impunity, the corrupt reconstruction which rather than employ local Iraqi contractors, instead used US and other Western suppliers often at 20 times the cost.

Gimme a break.

 

[dudalb]

Quite a trick to get a country to vote for a puppet in a free election!

BDS, once again.

Some people in the Left insist on playing with fire by supporting Islamic extremism,(whether openly or by inference) and they are going to be burned when..as sadly I think there will be...there is another 9/11 style attack on the US.