Watch out for that shoe, Mr. President!

[myrrh]

Classic!

"This is the farewell kiss," reporter Muntadhar al-Zaidi yelled as he hurled the footwear -- a strong sign of contempt in Arab culture.

But Bush, who ducked the flying footwear, told reporters aboard Air Force One afterward that the "bizarre" incident was not a sign of popular opinion in the country he ordered U.S. forces to invade in 2003.

Hmm... I find it hard to believe that this is NOT the popular opinion in Iraq.

edit: as I further read the quoted article from CNN, I found this line:

"Iraq has been far more costly to the United States with more than 4,200 Americans killed and costs estimates of more than $600 billion."

What about the 90,000 Iraqi's that have been killed? I guess their lives aren't worth as much as an American's, seeing how they aren't even mentioned. I guess that could to so that the American's don't know what evil their country is doing. I remember when my parents were here two months ago. It was there first time overseas and they said "All they show on the news is the US bombing, attacking and killing people". As if they couldn't believe that the US was actually doing such things. Go figure...

[Deckard]

Originally Posted by myrrh

But Bush, who ducked the flying footwear, told reporters aboard Air Force One afterward that the "bizarre" incident was not a sign of popular opinion in the country he ordered U.S. forces to invade in 2003.

Hmm... I find it hard to believe that this is NOT the popular opinion in Iraq.

Tbh, so do I. I was watching an interview with various Baghdad Iraqis last night and one guy dismissed the notion of them now being a free society by pointing out that yes, anarchy IS technically a form of freedom isn't it? I just hope they can rebuild their country once we've gone, but let's hope it's not now rebuilt in a way that backfires on us, seeing as the principle reason was that it was supposed to make us safer (in that sense, "us" quite clearly being "not them")

Originally Posted by myrrh

"Iraq has been far more costly to the United States with more than 4,200 Americans killed and costs estimates of more than $600 billion."

What about the 90,000 Iraqi's that have been killed? I guess their lives aren't worth as much as an American's, seeing how they aren't even mentioned.

It's hard to take that number in without some kind of comparison. Take the number killed in the Mumbai terror attacks that dominated the news recently, and imagine that level of death 500 times over. Where is the sympathy and the outrage?

[myrrh]

Well, you can compare it to 140,000 which is the number of people who died between August and December of 1945 in what was left of Hiroshima (70,000 of which died instantly as Little Boy vomited his guts over her).

And who are the terrorists again?...

terrorism |ˈterəˌrizəm|
noun
the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.

[King of Snake]

war = terrorism?

btw not sure where the link with Hiroshima comes from. The situations are not really comparable wouldn't you say?

[myrrh]

Originally Posted by King of Snake

war = terrorism?

btw not sure where the link with Hiroshima comes from. The situations are not really comparable wouldn't you say?

That was the only number I could come up with off the top of my head that had to do with the US killing mass amounts of people.

I don't think that the situations are quite the same, but now that you mention it, our current situation is worse because the Iraqi's weren't doing anything to justify us killing so many of their people. At least we were technically at war with Japan when we decided to start dropping bombs on them.

[Deckard]

From the always-reliable Peter Brookes in the Times:


Steve Bell's now iconic depiction of Bush:


Matt in the Torygraph:

[Deckard]

On a rather more serious note (and this needs corroboration):

The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush has said that the reporter has been beaten in custody.

Muntadar al-Zaidi has suffered a broken hand, broken ribs and internal bleeding, as well as an eye injury, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC.

Dargham al-Zaidi told the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Baghdad he believed his brother had now been taken to a US military hospital in the Iraqi capital. Mr Zaidi told our correspondent that despite offers from many lawyers his brother has not been given access to any since being arrested by forces under the command of Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser.

If true, well... that should teach that terrorist shoe-bomber never to attempt to assassinate the president.

[cacophony]

Originally Posted by myrrh

I don't think that the situations are quite the same, but now that you mention it, our current situation is worse because the Iraqi's weren't doing anything to justify us killing so many of their people. At least we were technically at war with Japan when we decided to start dropping bombs on them.

you're right. those innocent civilians going about their business in japan totally deserved to die.

[dubman]

technically

of course it makes sense that we never hear about iraqi deaths. we're not supposed to care.

[//\/\/]

Originally Posted by cacophony

you're right. those innocent civilians going about their business in japan totally deserved to die.

the second world war brought civilians into play on an unprecedented scale. the germans, japanese and the allies all targeted civilian populations - it was a tactic brought about by technological advances in aviation. they didn't deserve to die, but their country was at war and they became targets; just as millions of europeans did too.

and looking at the way the uk population viewed the war, they were supportive of their country's actions and took being targets as something that went with the territory; so does that make them complicit in some way?