Iraqi Throws Shoes at Bush

Pres Bush said afterwards "I don't know what his beef was"

Well W, if you don't know by now....

His reflexes aren't bad!

The reporter is now being interogated, to learn if somebody paid him to do it. I shudder to think.

Absolutely right, GW. You may not agree with it, but look at what has happened in Iraq. Can you imagine anyone attempting such a stunt if Saddam was still around? He'd have been in the wood chipper before daybreak.

I think we're missing the real back story here. Several years ago, Bush was photographed in a meeting with a Saudi muckity muck with his legs crossed in such a way that the Saudi was facing the sole of Bush's shoe -- a grave insult, though unintentional and unremarked upon by the Saudi.

This reporter clearly is the Miss Manners of Iraq.

Another suicide bomber in Baghdad killed 9 police officers...

In exchange for thousands of lives and the contents of our treasury we have purchased a pair of shoes. Do you think the cost was too high, Ticomaya?

The cost of what?

Did a 5 year old tell you to ask that question or did you come with it all by yourself?

Yes, compare that to the, what is it, thousands of innocents who have been detained in Guantanamo by the bastion of all that is right and decent.

Compare the numbers of Iraqis killed because of an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation to Saddam reign. They are much too close for comfort.

Do a recount of the number of Vietnamese murdered in order to save them for democracy, the women raped, children killed in Nicaragua, again, in order to save them for democracy.

Yup, Tico, just try. You don't even have to imagine, the facts are all right there in front of you.

Is it not just conjecture that a message was being sent via shoe? It could have just been a mistranslation of the old maxim, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the Bush." Is the word "shoe" and "bird" similar in Iraqi?

you so sounded like the sheriff from Fargo when you said that....

BAGHDAD " An Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at President Bush and called him a dog became a huge celebrity in the Arab world and beyond on Monday, with many supporters exalting him for what they called a courageous act in the face of American arrogance about the war.

(December 15, 2008) Barely 24 hours after the journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, was tackled and arrested for his actions at a Baghdad news conference, the shoe-throwing incident was generating 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.

In Sadr City, the sprawling Baghdad suburb that has seen some of the most intense fighting between insurgents and American 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.

As someobody else has already observed on another thread, this was obviously an act of sabotage.

Must be my heavy Minnesota accent ....

I doubt Bush kept the shoes.

I should have thrown shoes at Nixon.

He already had heels.

Several people descended on the man immediately after, wrestling him to the ground, and it took a minute or two for security agents to clear the crowd and start hauling him out. As they dragged him off, he was moaning and screaming as if in pain. Later, a large blood trail could be seen on the carpet where he was dragged out of the room.

He was taken into custody and reportedly was being held for questioning by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's guards and is being tested for alcohol and drugs.

Other Arab journalists and commentators, fed up with U.S. policy in the Middle East and Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam, echoed al-Zeidi's sentiments Monday. Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the influential London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, wrote on the newspaper's Web site that the incident was "a proper goodbye for a war criminal."

After a meeting with Hamid Karzai in the capital of Kabul, Bush said he told the president of Afghanistan: "You can count on the United States. Just like you've been able to count on this administration, you'll be able to count on the next administration as well."

edgar wrote :



they wanted to know how he was able to afford to throw away a pair of shoes after the many years of war .
one of the guards asked that next time he throws shoes again to please throw them to him - he needs a pair .
hbg

was it a pair of these "hooked" shoes <GRIN> ?
a hit would have been rather painful ...

This guy is a big hero now in the ME, and somebody wants to buy the shoes for $10 million.