Icheoku asks, did the secret service detail protecting President George Walker Bush fail in their assignment by allowing the crazy Iraqi shoe-thrower a second attempt at his target, our President? The first could be interpreted as an unexpected surprise, but the second time is unacceptable considering it could have been any other more harmful weapon. Icheoku hopes that the secret service will review what happened in Iraq with a view to avoiding such embarrassment to Americans by proxy of our President in the future.
Hate him or love him, President George Walker Bush is still our president and this fact should be made known to the whole world including this Iraqi mad-man; and Americans protect their own. In the composite picture right, President Bush looked slightly bemused after ducking the shoe hurled at him by this Iraqi fanatic while Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki tried like any gracious host to reach out and parry off the thrown-shoe before it hits his American guest, President George Bush.
Icheoku says congratulations, Mr. President, for twice successfully ducking those filthy Iraqi shoes hurled at you by that fanatic masquerading as a journalist. Mr. President, Icheoku wants you to know that you did America proud by not allowing that Iraqi dog hit a home-run with those dirty dusty shoes of his. Mr President, you denied him his possibly greatest joy at humiliating an American President by striking a target with those his smelly shoes. Imagine an Iraqi pig's shoes landing on the head or body of an American President? Bravo, Mr. President for those quick reflexes which you displayed at that Baghdad press conference, it pays to be alert and nimble! 
Icheoku sometimes wonders aloud if the Iraqis would rather they had remained under the dictatorship of "Sad-man Insane" as opposed to the relative freedom they appear to now enjoy? Even their Prime Minister Al Maliki would not have had the privilege of hosting an American President were it not for the fall of Sadam Hussein, courtesy of the Americans and President George W. Bush. For this pig to now throw his dusty shoes at George Bush is the greatest case of ingratitude for all the blood and treasury expended in liberating the Iraqis. Under the deposed Saddam Hussein, this shoe-thrower's head 
would have been cut off for bringing shame and ridicule to the brave Iraqi people. His daring to put a guest of the Iraqi government under fear of bodily harm, would have been treated by Saddam Hussein as a treasonable high crime felony warranting the guillotine; possibly his family, clan and community would have equally been wiped out under the deposed regime for producing such a disgrace. This shoe-throwing is inexplicable under any circumstance; and for showing such disrespect and contempt to a visiting foreign dignitary, this Iraqi shoe-thrower deserves some years in the slammer for his uncivilized behaviour. His conduct is abhorable and should be condemned by all right-thinking peop
le, world over, irrespective of the popularity or lack thereof of President George Walker Bush. However, President Bush had the last laugh by artfully dodging the raving mad-man of Iraq's shoe-missiles, thereby denying that loser, his intended target. Icheoku says that this despicable shoe-thrower, Muntather Zaidi, a correspondent for Baghdadiya, a satellite TV channel that broadcasts from Cairo should not walk, as he assaulted an American President and a visiting guest of the Iraqi government!
Iraqi shoe thrower to go on trial
ReplyDeleteMr Zaidi's lawyers say he was making a legitimate protest
The Iraqi man who threw his shoes at former US President George W Bush in December is to go on trial in Baghdad.
Muntadar al-Zaidi is charged with assaulting a foreign leader and faces a maximum sentence of 15 years.
His lawyers argue he was simply expressing his views in a country where passions are still inflamed after the US-led invasion in 2003.
The TV reporter achieved global notoriety by his actions, which were celebrated across the Arab world.
'Symbol of disrespect'
The trial is due to open on Thursday morning in Baghdad.
However, after an appeal by the defence team, the court may change the charges against Mr Zaidi once the trial is under way.
The lesser charge would incur a maximum sentence of two years.
The head of the defence team told the BBC they would be pressing for the charges to be dismissed and Mr Zaidi freed, without delay.
He said Mr Zaidi stood by what he had done and would not be offering any apologies to Mr Bush.
Mr Zaidi's lawyers said earlier that he had simply been expressing his opposition to the US presence in Iraq and that Mr Bush had never been in serious danger.
"Have you ever heard of anyone being killed by a shoe?" lawyer Dhiaa al-Saadi told Reuters in December.
"In Europe, they throw eggs and rotten tomatoes to insult. In Iraq, throwing a shoe is a symbol of disrespect."
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The incident drew mixed reactions in Iraq
Mr Zaidi threw two shoes at Mr Bush during a press conference in Baghdad on 15 December.
He shouted that Mr Bush was "a dog" and the shoes were "a farewell kiss" from those who had been killed, orphaned or widowed in Iraq.
Mr Bush ducked the shoes and appeared untroubled by the incident, joking shortly after that he knew they were a size 10.
Mr Zaidi was arrested and has been held in custody ever since.
His actions were condemned by the Iraqi government as "shameful", but he was celebrated as a hero by thousands in the Arab world, who called for his immediate release from prison.
Mr Zaidi had been due to go on trial last December, but his trial was postponed after the appeal.
Iraqi PM says shoe-thrower had fair trial
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Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AP – Followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr hold an anti-US demonstration marking the 6th anniversary … By ROHAN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer Rohan Sullivan, Associated Press Writer – Sun Mar 22, 6:51 pm ET
SYDNEY – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says his government did not intervene in the trial of the journalist who hurled his shoes at former President George W. Bush, but offered little sympathy for the man many consider a hero for his protest.
In an interview broadcast Sunday, al-Maliki disagreed that many Iraqis supported Muntadhar al-Zeidi's act of shoe-throwing during a news conference last December by the two leaders in Baghdad.
Al-Zeidi was sentenced earlier this month in an Iraqi court to three years in prison after a quick trial — two relatively brief hearings — that fed widespread suspicion among Iraqis that al-Maliki's U.S.-backed government orchestrated the process. Defense lawyers said they had no evidence of interference, although they argued the sentence wasn't warranted because al-Zeidi's act was an expression of freedom and not a crime.
Al-Maliki told the partly government-funded Special Broadcasting Service that al-Zeidi could have faced much worse for the crime of insulting a visiting head of state.
"What this man did in an official prime ministerial venue, in the presence of the prime minister and a state visitor — the Iraqi law, the Iraqi constitution, even under the old regime, applies sentences for 15 years up to execution," al-Maliki said.
"We left it to the law and did not interfere, and he was sentenced to three years," al-Maliki said in SBS's translation of the interview from Arabic. It was recorded during al-Maliki's March 10-14 visit to Australia.
Al-Zeidi's brazen act turned the 30-year-old reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world, where the former U.S. president is reviled for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Powerful Shiite clerics have called for al-Zeidi's release.
Al-Maliki said he did not believe Iraqis supported al-Zeidi because they respected their guests and the shoe-throwing act "does not comply with the values and ethics of the Iraqi people."
He said Iraqi forces would be ready to take over security as U.S. troops withdrew from his country, and that "the sectarian war is over" in Iraq, with political gangs responsible for most violence in the country now.
"We are not worried about Iraq, neither economically because it is a rich country, nor politically because the political process has settled on the basis of governing in a peaceful and democratic manner, and nor for the security side of it," he said.