This drivel was written on my local newspaper's blog.
The shoes hurled round the world
George W. Bush greatly — and typically — “misunderestimates” the depth of contempt and hatred he has stirred in the Arab world.
When an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the lame duck president, Bush dismissed the gesture as a way to get attention.
Typical smirking smugness.
In Iraqi culture, throwing your shoes at someone is the gravest form of insult. It’s like spitting in the president’s face, only moreso. The fact that Bush doesn’t get that speaks volumes.
Bush never understood what he was getting us into in Iraq and he still doesn’t. He will go to his grave unreflective and unenlightened.
The Arabs as a culture have a long memory. It will take decades to overcome the damage this president has done. Let us hope that never again will we be led into the mire by a president who considers stubborn, arrogant ignorance a virtue.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
P.S. You do have to hand it to Bush, though. His reactions were good. And I thought that Bill Clinton was the guy used to ducking things thrown at his head.
And my (hopefully) published response:
Jim,
You're the one who missed the boat entirely.
If not for George W. Bush, that man would not have the freedom to throw his shoes.
If that man had thrown his shoes at Saddam, he would have been imprisoned immediately; been made to watch all the female members in his family raped, tortured and killed in front of him; and all rest of his family would have been shot or just disappeared.
Oh, and he happened to be working for an anti-American newspaper based in Egypt. Not much different than the New York Times, I suspect.
You think Bush is the cause of hatred in the Middle East? Al Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center in 1993 when Clinton was President. They bombed our embassies all over the world when Clinton was President.
It's time you woke up and figured it out. It didn't start with President Bush and it's not going to end with the election of Obama either.
It's too bad your memory isn't as long as our enemies. That's why we are in this mess.
Signed,
It's just more mainstream media (albeit a free local weekly rag) trying to paint President Bush as stupid and unthinking. I wish he'd thought as much about pushing bailouts that don't/haven't/won't work.
How about some freaking tax cuts already? How about firing some useless overpaid government workers (start with Congress).
