why I threw my shoe at GW Bush - The Orange Mane

mhgaffney · 09-20-2009, 11:12 PM

Here is the statement by the Iraqi journalist -- just released from prison -- who threw his shoe at GW Bush.

It's important to hear his words -- because this man probably speaks for the vast majority of the Iraqi people.

Most Americans have no clue about the actual situation in Iraq -- because the US media presently functions as a PR office for the Pentagon -- rather than reporting the actual situation.

Most Americans think we saved Iraq-- when in fact we destroyed it. The truth is we all but erased the country from the map. You've heard it from me -- now hear it from an Iraqi.
MHG

Why I threw the shoe
I am no hero. I just acted as an Iraqi who witnessed the pain and bloodshed of too many innocents

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...hrew-shoe-bush
Muntazer al-Zaidi
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 September

I am free. But my country is still a prisoner of war. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act. But, simply, I answer: what compelled me to act is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot.

Over recent years, more than a million martyrs have fallen by the bullets of the occupation and Iraq is now filled with more than five million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. Many millions are homeless inside and outside the country.

We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shia would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ. This despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than a decade.

Our patience and our solidarity did not make us forget the oppression. But the invasion divided brother from brother, neighbour from neighbour. It turned our homes into funeral tents.

I am not a hero. But I have a point of view. I have a stance. It humiliated me to see my country humiliated; and to see my Baghdad burned, my people killed. Thousands of tragic pictures remained in my head, pushing me towards the path of confrontation. The scandal of Abu Ghraib. The massacre of Falluja, Najaf, Haditha, Sadr City, Basra, Diyala, Mosul, Tal Afar, and every inch of our wounded land. I travelled through my burning land and saw with my own eyes the pain of the victims, and heard with my own ears the screams of the orphans and the bereaved. And a feeling of shame haunted me like an ugly name because I was powerless.

As soon as I finished my professional duties in reporting the daily tragedies, while I washed away the remains of the debris of the ruined Iraqi houses, or the blood that stained my clothes, I would clench my teeth and make a pledge to our victims, a pledge of vengeance.

The opportunity came, and I took it.

I took it out of loyalty to every drop of innocent blood that has been shed through the occupation or because of it, every scream of a bereaved mother, every moan of an orphan, the sorrow of a rape victim, the teardrop of an orphan.

I say to those who reproach me: do you know how many broken homes that shoe which I threw had entered? How many times it had trodden over the blood of innocent victims? Maybe that shoe was the appropriate response when all values were violated.

When I threw the shoe in the face of the criminal, George Bush, I wanted to express my rejection of his lies, his occupation of my country, my rejection of his killing my people. My rejection of his plundering the wealth of my country, and destroying its infrastructure. And casting out its sons into a diaspora.

If I have wronged journalism without intention, because of the professional embarrassment I caused the establishment, I apologise. All that I meant to do was express with a living conscience the feelings of a citizen who sees his homeland desecrated every day. The professionalism mourned by some under the auspices of the occupation should not have a voice louder than the voice of patriotism. And if patriotism needs to speak out, then professionalism should be allied with it.

I didn't do this so my name would enter history or for material gains. All I wanted was to defend my country.

Muntazer al-Zaidi is an Iraqi reporter who was freed this week after serving nine months in prison for throwing his shoe at former US president George Bush at a press conference. This edited statement was translated by McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Sahar Issa www.mcclatchydc.com

cutthemdown · 09-21-2009, 02:24 AM

who even cares why he says he did it? Wow you took off your shoe and threw it at a guy....and you missed.......both times!!!!!!!!.

IMO if he had hit the President then maybe he could be a hero to America haters. Or Bush haters whatever. But cmon he missed.

I guess thats the reason Iraq lost the war and is a piss ant country. They make hero's out of people who miss!!!!!

Rohirrim · 09-21-2009, 07:53 AM

Bush was a POS.

troyfromwv · 09-21-2009, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rohirrim

Bush was a POS.

Gaffney is a POS!

The Lone Bolt · 09-21-2009, 10:32 AM

Sounds like life under Saddam was a paradise. Maybe we should have let Saddam continue to rape, torture, and murder his people, and launch more unjustified wars of aggression against his neighbors for the next 20 years.

I'm sure this journalist would have been happy then. When he ended up in one of Saddam's torture chambers for no reason and saw his mother raped in front of him by Baathist thugs I'm sure he would have thanked Allah for Saddam's Iraqi paradise.

watermock · 09-21-2009, 11:10 AM

Evedently he hadn't heard of the 9 year war against Iran or the Kuwait invasion while his Suni and Shia brother were lning up for prayers.

Smiling Assassin27 · 09-21-2009, 11:17 AM

Tranlsation: I was simply unable to handle my dissent from Iraqi and American policy in a mature and responsible way, and instead demanded to embarrass myself and my nation by calling attention to my childish, cowardly, and utterly inappropriate action. I hijacked a forum (and abused my position as a journalist) that my fellow Iraqis did not have access to, and considered my opinion more important than theirs, so committed an overtly punkish act so all of Iraq could be the butt of a joke--but more importantly, so MY opinion could be heard loud and clear. I'm as selfish as the day is long. Thank you.

Rohirrim · 09-21-2009, 11:20 AM

Too bad nobody stood up in Congress and called George Bush a liar. Might have saved some lives.

rastaman · 09-21-2009, 11:47 AM

Point is, whats is missing from the conversation is the law of unintended consequence, interms of the number of terrorist our illegal invasion and occupatiion have created and continues to create. The chickens will have come home to roost should our country see a growth of splinter terrorist cells here in he U.S. Because we are dealing with human beings and the sophistication-stealth involved with catching or preventing attacks will only intensify. And our Intelligence-Law Inforcement etc., will miss in preventing attacks on U.S. soil. The terrorist only need to be successful a few times or once before they affect the quality of life and the spirit of safety and freedoms Americans have become acustomed to.

We should have quit screwing around with middle east over 50 plus years ago. Now our U.S. citizens will one day find themselves paying a steep price with the death of love ones b/c of our foreign imperialist-exploitive policies against the Middle East and Middle Eastern people.

mhgaffney · 09-21-2009, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiling Assassin27

Tranlsation: I was simply unable to handle my dissent from Iraqi and American policy in a mature and responsible way, and instead demanded to embarrass myself and my nation by calling attention to my childish, cowardly, and utterly inappropriate action. I hijacked a forum (and abused my position as a journalist) that my fellow Iraqis did not have access to, and considered my opinion more important than theirs, so committed an overtly punkish act so all of Iraq could be the butt of a joke--but more importantly, so MY opinion could be heard loud and clear. I'm as selfish as the day is long. Thank you.

Are you defending Bush's invasion?

Are you claiming that the US war policy is mature and reasonable?

In 2005, three star Gen Wiliam Odom -- former head of the NSA - stated in a speech in no uncertain terms that Bush's invasion of Iraq was the biggest foreign policy blunder in US history.

Are you calling Gen Odom (now deceased) a liar?

cutthemdown · 09-21-2009, 07:17 PM

I say people had a lot more to protest about under Saddam and his sons tyranny. They didn't because they would be killed.

So things are better now and after we leave they can figure out how to make there country on there own. Hopefully they turn out stable and with more freedom then under Saddam.

so go forth and throw some shoes, eventually now you get out of prison. Protest and fight for a country you can be proud of, you now have that chance.

mhgaffney · 09-21-2009, 08:53 PM

No Cut,

As usual, you are just plain wrong. We in the USA destroyed Iraq -- at the behest of Israel, our ally. The Israelis wanted Iraq dismembered and we did it for them. End of story.

Today Iraq is so weak the country can't even prevent Turkey from cutting off the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. They are a pale shadow. In fact, the nation is all but dead.

As soon as I find it -- I will post an analysis of the Iraq situation by Prof Petras. It's pretty shocking. Even if he's right about only half of it - things are MUCH worse today than under Saddam - for the average Iraqi.

MHG

cutthemdown · 09-21-2009, 09:09 PM

I have no problem with you thinking I am wrong. You're a friggin insane nut and everyone on the board agrees.

The Lone Bolt · 09-21-2009, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cutthemdown

I have no problem with you thinking I am wrong. You're a friggin insane nut and everyone on the board agrees.

Yep. Get help Gaff.

TDmvp · 09-22-2009, 04:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cutthemdown

I have no problem with you thinking I am wrong. You're a friggin insane nut and everyone on the board agrees.

L rep O ... hehe

mhgaffney · 09-22-2009, 06:44 AM

Cut,

The problem is not me. The problem is a "reality gap" in America. We have two views of reality that are soooo different and incompatible that from one side the other looks insane.

The issue is which view is right.

My perspective is grounded in research and study. Your world view is based on your predilection to feel good about yourself (and rightard ideas), first and foremost.

The corollary is that if anything gets in the way of this narcissistic self aggrandizement it must be wrong -- regardless of the facts.

As the captain of the Titanic may well have said - - damn the facts -- full speed ahead.

MHG

W*GS · 09-22-2009, 07:54 AM

All of gaff-o's "research" ends with "It's the fault of the Jews".

Remember, folks, he's a Nazi at heart.

Hotrod · 09-22-2009, 09:38 AM

LMAO I missed Gaff-o

Rohirrim · 09-22-2009, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McDortoh

LMAO I missed Gaff-o

I see you finally got paroled.

Hotrod · 09-22-2009, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rohirrim

I see you finally got paroled.

I got off with a slap on the wrist.......oh and a restraining order from Dove Valley and most importantly Pat Bowlen.

mhgaffney · 09-22-2009, 06:40 PM

Cut,

Here's the paper by professor Petras about the destruction of Iraq. I suspect he is right about most of it.

America will NEVER live down the shame of what we have done to a nation -- and a people -- who never attacked us.

Yet we see the same drive by shooters making the personal attacks - the same a-holes who cheered Bush on.

MHG

The US War against Iraq
The Destruction of a Civilization
By James Petras

http://www.informationclearinghouse....ticle23342.htm

L.A. BRONCOS FAN · 09-22-2009, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Lone Bolt

Sounds like life under Saddam was a paradise.

Gee, now there's a great rationalization for destroying the country and killing ~1 million people.

Poster boy for arrested moral (and intellectual) development much?

L.A. BRONCOS FAN · 09-22-2009, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhgaffney

Are you defending Bush's invasion?

Are you claiming that the US war policy is mature and reasonable?

In 2005, three star Gen Wiliam Odom -- former head of the NSA - stated in a speech in no uncertain terms that Bush's invasion of Iraq was the biggest foreign policy blunder in US history.

Are you calling Gen Odom (now deceased) a liar?

Not just a liar - a rotten patriot and a traitor.

cutthemdown · 09-22-2009, 09:24 PM

I won't read any story whose topic sentence is a statement they haven't proven. That isn't journalism.

cutthemdown · 09-22-2009, 09:24 PM

That's an OP-ED piece and information clearing house is a joke. I don't ready your crap.

09-20-2009, 11:12 PM	#1
mhgaffney Ring of Famer Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 9,770	why I threw my shoe at GW Bush Here is the statement by the Iraqi journalist -- just released from prison -- who threw his shoe at GW Bush. It's important to hear his words -- because this man probably speaks for the vast majority of the Iraqi people. Most Americans have no clue about the actual situation in Iraq -- because the US media presently functions as a PR office for the Pentagon -- rather than reporting the actual situation. Most Americans think we saved Iraq-- when in fact we destroyed it. The truth is we all but erased the country from the map. You've heard it from me -- now hear it from an Iraqi. MHG Why I threw the shoe I am no hero. I just acted as an Iraqi who witnessed the pain and bloodshed of too many innocents http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...hrew-shoe-bush Muntazer al-Zaidi guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 September I am free. But my country is still a prisoner of war. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act. But, simply, I answer: what compelled me to act is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot. Over recent years, more than a million martyrs have fallen by the bullets of the occupation and Iraq is now filled with more than five million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. Many millions are homeless inside and outside the country. We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shia would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ. This despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than a decade. Our patience and our solidarity did not make us forget the oppression. But the invasion divided brother from brother, neighbour from neighbour. It turned our homes into funeral tents. I am not a hero. But I have a point of view. I have a stance. It humiliated me to see my country humiliated; and to see my Baghdad burned, my people killed. Thousands of tragic pictures remained in my head, pushing me towards the path of confrontation. The scandal of Abu Ghraib. The massacre of Falluja, Najaf, Haditha, Sadr City, Basra, Diyala, Mosul, Tal Afar, and every inch of our wounded land. I travelled through my burning land and saw with my own eyes the pain of the victims, and heard with my own ears the screams of the orphans and the bereaved. And a feeling of shame haunted me like an ugly name because I was powerless. As soon as I finished my professional duties in reporting the daily tragedies, while I washed away the remains of the debris of the ruined Iraqi houses, or the blood that stained my clothes, I would clench my teeth and make a pledge to our victims, a pledge of vengeance. The opportunity came, and I took it. I took it out of loyalty to every drop of innocent blood that has been shed through the occupation or because of it, every scream of a bereaved mother, every moan of an orphan, the sorrow of a rape victim, the teardrop of an orphan. I say to those who reproach me: do you know how many broken homes that shoe which I threw had entered? How many times it had trodden over the blood of innocent victims? Maybe that shoe was the appropriate response when all values were violated. When I threw the shoe in the face of the criminal, George Bush, I wanted to express my rejection of his lies, his occupation of my country, my rejection of his killing my people. My rejection of his plundering the wealth of my country, and destroying its infrastructure. And casting out its sons into a diaspora. If I have wronged journalism without intention, because of the professional embarrassment I caused the establishment, I apologise. All that I meant to do was express with a living conscience the feelings of a citizen who sees his homeland desecrated every day. The professionalism mourned by some under the auspices of the occupation should not have a voice louder than the voice of patriotism. And if patriotism needs to speak out, then professionalism should be allied with it. I didn't do this so my name would enter history or for material gains. All I wanted was to defend my country. Muntazer al-Zaidi is an Iraqi reporter who was freed this week after serving nine months in prison for throwing his shoe at former US president George Bush at a press conference. This edited statement was translated by McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Sahar Issa www.mcclatchydc.com

09-21-2009, 10:32 AM	#5
The Lone Bolt Ring of Famer GO CHARGERS!!!! Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: The Boredom Capital of the Universe (Everett, WA) Posts: 2,871	Sounds like life under Saddam was a paradise. Maybe we should have let Saddam continue to rape, torture, and murder his people, and launch more unjustified wars of aggression against his neighbors for the next 20 years. I'm sure this journalist would have been happy then. When he ended up in one of Saddam's torture chambers for no reason and saw his mother raped in front of him by Baathist thugs I'm sure he would have thanked Allah for Saddam's Iraqi paradise. Last edited by The Lone Bolt; 09-21-2009 at 12:22 PM..

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09-21-2009, 02:24 AM	#2
cutthemdown A verbis ad verbera Zimm to HOF Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Long Beach Posts: 32,480	who even cares why he says he did it? Wow you took off your shoe and threw it at a guy....and you missed.......both times!!!!!!!!. IMO if he had hit the President then maybe he could be a hero to America haters. Or Bush haters whatever. But cmon he missed. I guess thats the reason Iraq lost the war and is a piss ant country. They make hero's out of people who miss!!!!!

09-21-2009, 07:53 AM	#3
Rohirrim Partisan Human Cannonball Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Twixt Hell & Highwater Posts: 48,842	Bush was a POS.

09-21-2009, 11:10 AM	#6
watermock "Hoodie Jr" "Hug me!" Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Hot Springs, Ouachitah Posts: 77,090	Evedently he hadn't heard of the 9 year war against Iran or the Kuwait invasion while his Suni and Shia brother were lning up for prayers.

09-21-2009, 11:17 AM	#7
Smiling Assassin27 STOP! KIPER TIME! Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: In a van down by the river Posts: 10,978 Adopt-a-Bronco: Von Miller	Tranlsation: I was simply unable to handle my dissent from Iraqi and American policy in a mature and responsible way, and instead demanded to embarrass myself and my nation by calling attention to my childish, cowardly, and utterly inappropriate action. I hijacked a forum (and abused my position as a journalist) that my fellow Iraqis did not have access to, and considered my opinion more important than theirs, so committed an overtly punkish act so all of Iraq could be the butt of a joke--but more importantly, so MY opinion could be heard loud and clear. I'm as selfish as the day is long. Thank you.

09-21-2009, 11:20 AM	#8
Rohirrim Partisan Human Cannonball Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Twixt Hell & Highwater Posts: 48,842	Too bad nobody stood up in Congress and called George Bush a liar. Might have saved some lives.

09-21-2009, 11:47 AM	#9
rastaman Ring of Famer New to the Forum Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 7,180 Adopt-a-Bronco: None	Point is, whats is missing from the conversation is the law of unintended consequence, interms of the number of terrorist our illegal invasion and occupatiion have created and continues to create. The chickens will have come home to roost should our country see a growth of splinter terrorist cells here in he U.S. Because we are dealing with human beings and the sophistication-stealth involved with catching or preventing attacks will only intensify. And our Intelligence-Law Inforcement etc., will miss in preventing attacks on U.S. soil. The terrorist only need to be successful a few times or once before they affect the quality of life and the spirit of safety and freedoms Americans have become acustomed to. We should have quit screwing around with middle east over 50 plus years ago. Now our U.S. citizens will one day find themselves paying a steep price with the death of love ones b/c of our foreign imperialist-exploitive policies against the Middle East and Middle Eastern people.

09-21-2009, 07:17 PM	#11
cutthemdown A verbis ad verbera Zimm to HOF Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Long Beach Posts: 32,480	I say people had a lot more to protest about under Saddam and his sons tyranny. They didn't because they would be killed. So things are better now and after we leave they can figure out how to make there country on there own. Hopefully they turn out stable and with more freedom then under Saddam. so go forth and throw some shoes, eventually now you get out of prison. Protest and fight for a country you can be proud of, you now have that chance.

09-21-2009, 08:53 PM	#12
mhgaffney Ring of Famer Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 9,770	No Cut, As usual, you are just plain wrong. We in the USA destroyed Iraq -- at the behest of Israel, our ally. The Israelis wanted Iraq dismembered and we did it for them. End of story. Today Iraq is so weak the country can't even prevent Turkey from cutting off the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. They are a pale shadow. In fact, the nation is all but dead. As soon as I find it -- I will post an analysis of the Iraq situation by Prof Petras. It's pretty shocking. Even if he's right about only half of it - things are MUCH worse today than under Saddam - for the average Iraqi. MHG

09-21-2009, 09:09 PM	#13
cutthemdown A verbis ad verbera Zimm to HOF Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Long Beach Posts: 32,480	I have no problem with you thinking I am wrong. You're a friggin insane nut and everyone on the board agrees.

09-22-2009, 06:44 AM	#16
mhgaffney Ring of Famer Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 9,770	Cut, The problem is not me. The problem is a "reality gap" in America. We have two views of reality that are soooo different and incompatible that from one side the other looks insane. The issue is which view is right. My perspective is grounded in research and study. Your world view is based on your predilection to feel good about yourself (and rightard ideas), first and foremost. The corollary is that if anything gets in the way of this narcissistic self aggrandizement it must be wrong -- regardless of the facts. As the captain of the Titanic may well have said - - damn the facts -- full speed ahead. MHG

09-22-2009, 09:38 AM	#18
Hotrod Self Appointed Expert aka Dortoh Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 25,136 Adopt-a-Bronco: Miss I	LMAO I missed Gaff-o

09-22-2009, 06:40 PM	#21
mhgaffney Ring of Famer Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 9,770	Cut, Here's the paper by professor Petras about the destruction of Iraq. I suspect he is right about most of it. America will NEVER live down the shame of what we have done to a nation -- and a people -- who never attacked us. Yet we see the same drive by shooters making the personal attacks - the same a-holes who cheered Bush on. MHG The US War against Iraq The Destruction of a Civilization By James Petras http://www.informationclearinghouse....ticle23342.htm

09-22-2009, 09:24 PM	#24
cutthemdown A verbis ad verbera Zimm to HOF Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Long Beach Posts: 32,480	I won't read any story whose topic sentence is a statement they haven't proven. That isn't journalism.