If The Shoe Fits

Iraqi journalist hurls shoes at 'dog' Bush An Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes and an insult at George W. Bush, without hitting him, as the US president was shaking hands with the Iraqi premier at his Baghdad office on Sunday. As the two leaders met in Nuri al-Maliki's private office, a journalist sitting in the third row jumped up, shouting: "It is the farewell kiss, you dog," and threw his shoes one after the other towards Bush. Maliki made a protective gesture towards the US president, who ducked and was not hit. The journalist, Muntazer al-Zaidi from Al-Baghdadia channel which broadcasts from Cairo, was frogmarched from the room by security staff, an AFP journalist said. Soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture. After Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled in Baghdad in April 2003, many onlookers beat the statue's face with their soles. That wasn't one Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at President Bush. It was Iraq. An Iraq that was destroyed by the weak, smirking little punk who said (if you read between the lines), "Oops, stuff happens! But let's bygones be bygones, O.K.?" Iraq saw a sociopath who didn't feel a molecule of guilt. Iraq saw a war criminal who would never be punished for his crimes. Iraq saw a greedy millionaire who got richer by looting the country until there was nothing left. Iraq saw the living breathing personification of the Great Satan. Iraq saw Death. At that useless press conference, it was one man who spoke for Iraq by refusing to collaborate in a lie and expressed how he and his people and his country really felt about the ex-President of the United States. This is your legacy, Mr. Bush. Get used to it.