By now, every man, woman and child on this Earth has seen the notorious shoe-throwing footage that happened a few days ago in Iraq, so I won't dwell on that.
What I would like to know is this:
1) What brings a man to throw a shoe at two world leaders, (well, one world leader and one wannabe)?
If we're talking about an unjust war, where the counter-argument was that the Iraqis would have been better off living with Saddam than with American-instigated terrorism, (it depends on what point of view you'd be listening to) fine, but imagine how desparate the simple Iraqi feels when there is not a single sense of gratitude towards the man who was instrumental in removing a tyrant like Saddam!
2) Where the hell was Bush's security detail we see and hear about? All those Hollywood-produced movies like "In the Line of Fire" talk about the Secret Service's dedication to their principle (US President) and how they would gladly take a bullet for him, etc...So where were all Bush's Secret Service men? The perpretrator threw his shoes TWICE, and the SS got to the President only AFTER the other journalists subdued him to the ground, and later on, the Iraqi Security jumped in and bound him down too.
3) What the Hell was Nouri Al Malki so calm and cool about while all this was happening? It was't until the Iraqi perpetrator threw his SECOND shoe did Al Malki budge and spring out his arm trying to block the show's fligt path. Before that, he was just as cool as a cucumber!!
Of course, towards the end of the SECOND shoe-throwing incident, the Secret Service men rushed towards Bush and flanked him according to their usual trained way, one of them even shoving his hands into his inner pocked-assumable to get his sidearm ready for any 'additional' incident, with Bush asking him to calm down. But check out the guy to the left of Bush, calmly looking behind someone's shoulders at the perpetrator, as if he's looking at a street-mime!
Now, having said all that, the perpetrator has now become a folk hero all over the Arab world! Is that now the Arab standard for heroism? Throwing shoes at people? People are rallying their voices in support of the shoe-thrower, lawyers are pooling their resources to build a legal defense for him, some are offering US$10 million for one of the shoes that were thrown at Bush...but really, what has this man done besides make himself look like a follish Don Quixote on live TV?
Is the situation in Iraq getting better? Have conditiones normalized? Is Al Qaida in Iraq finally destroyed? Has Jerusalem been liberated? Not a chance....
What he's done is just enforce a general opinion that all Arabs hate the west, care nothing for dimplomacy and care even less for simple good manners. We're one step closer to total damnation by all the nations of the world simply by siding with a rude and obnoxious Iraqi, disgruntled as he may be....now hows is that to our benefit as Arabs and Muslims?
One may sympathize with a disgruntled man suffering all the pains and fears of a war on Terrorism, one may even praise his bravery, but was it really bravery, or desparation? Was he a champion of the Arab/Iraqi cause or was he a terrified simpleton who'd lost every nerve in his system due to the massive mistakes of the U.S. Administration? I don't condemn nor condone this poor man, he's just venting anger, just like any desparate human being would do.
I do, however, condemn those who think that his actions were right and justified, and strive to defend him in the most popularized of ways, and who feed on the media's frenzy in order to gain more exposure by their imbicile remarks.
Personally speaking, it actually made me feel sorry for Bush to have been subjected to this incident, and in any case, if victory favors the bold, it is better to weep with wise men than to laugh with fools!
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