The Shoe Not Intended to Injure, It Was Intended to Insult, and It Succeeded.

[tekisui]

What is so great about the statement made by al-Zaidi, is that it was completely successful. The entire world saw chimpy get insulted. The words that went with the two shoes were perfect as well.

Chimpy isn't worth an attempt to injure him. He is beneath becoming a martyr or a saint. He is only worth scorn, insult, belittling and incarceration.

Had the 'attack' been with anything more harmful the message would be lost.

The War Crimes Chimp got two shoes. One as a goodbye kiss. One for the orphans and widows. It was a well expressed articulate statement that the entire world saw and understood.

[wtmusic]

1. Disagree.

When you're searched and have nothing else to throw, shoes are the last resort. He was going for the bean.

[unpossibles]

2. I had heard that in Iraq hitting someone with your shoes is the highest (or lowest) insult

remember all the photos of people hitting that Saddam Hussein statue with their shoes?

[OnionPatch]

23. This is true.

I've heard this from many while living and traveling in the middle east. We were told not to even aim the sole of the foot toward someone while sitting cross-legged. The shoe is "filthy, unclean."

[BurtWorm]

3. He was clearly going for the bean

But he meant the shoe as an insult as well. Insult to injury: that was his intention.

[wtmusic]

5. 'Zactly.

Something tells me had he landed one, he wouldn't have apologized.

[stillcool]

7. When in the United States..

when in Iraq..do as the Iraqi's do...

http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2005/12/iraq_parliament.html

Dec 06, 2005
Iraq Parliamentary Elections: Allawi Gets The Boot

If you recall, Najaf is the home base of Moktada al-Sadr, now a coalition partner in the main Shi'ite electoral slate, the United Iraqi Alliance. Also, Najaf was the scene of a military standoff in August 2004 between U.S. troops and al-Sadr's militia. As the Prime Minister at the time, Allawi, a secular Shi'ite (and ex-C.I.A. operative) stood solidly behind the U.S. effort.

It may have been because he interrupted a funeral. (In the third shot from the top, you can see a casket being led out the entrance with Allawi's contingent just beyond.) The yellow circles in the next two shots are not thought bubbles. They are evidentiary circles drawn to point out how Allawi and company were run off in a hail of shoes.

I guess Allawi's Ba'athist past doesn't make him the most popular guy in more religious Shi'ite strongholds. Many cultures have unique rituals of social denunciation. In Iraq, as I'm told, the throwing of shoes is the single worst insult that a person can make.
http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2005/12/iraq_parliament.html

[Gogi]

21. What I noticed was the half smile on the Iraqi Prime Minister's face.

You can't tell me he did'nt know what was coming!

[aquart]

12. Western culture, much? He intended to throw his shoes.

Nothing else would have made the same statement in HIS culture.

[no limit]

24. yeah, cause he had nothing else to throw (like a microphone)

this guy was smart, he knew exactly what statement he was making.

[madokie]

4. Yep, no doubt

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Public humiliation is such a painful, and appropriate punishment for

prez shit-for-brains. If he had gotten conked on the bean, it would have just been a bonus.

I can understand now why prez shit-for-brains feigned ignorance about the motivation. To acknowledge the man's complaint would have been admitting the wrongdoing.

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. What do you mean 'feigned ignorance'?

This is the greatest ignoramus we've ever had for pResident. He doesn't need to feign a thing.

[BrklynLiberal]

16. I agree 100%, but I think he knew damn well why that journalist threw those shoes.

He just did not want to acknowledge the justification.

The man is a 100% mental defective, no doubt. But I think in this case, he knew what was going on, and chose not to deal with it.

[Mike Daniels]

9. He aimed straight for Bush's noggin

If it was meant to just be an insult I think he would have aimed a little more off target.

[tblue37]

13. Yeah, and the guy had a really good aim and delivery. If W weren't unusually

quick for a 60-something (he did duck pretty darned fast, you must admit), he would have nailed him both times.

[Ian David]

10. If only ALL of them had started throwing shoes. n/t

[SammyWinstonJack]

14. !

:thumbsup:

[trusty elf]

15. ....

[RaleighNCDUer]

17. I LOVE it!

That green sneaker is scary, though. It looks like it is going to bite him when it gets there.

[newtothegame]

11. Doesn't the person have to care that you did it to be insulted? n/t

[nichomachus]

19. Not really

It's a sign of contempt that has been broadcast non-stop around the world. Bush is too stupid to care -- but he has been shamed beyond words.

[Orsino]

18. It didn't succeed with the target, or with America in general...

...but those who know the symbolism get it.

[Laelth]

20. al-Zaidi spoke for billions.

His was a speech act, and the world heard it loud and clear. Most of us agree with the message, too. It was perfect.

The United States is a LIBERAL Country.

:dem:

-Laelth

[ljm2002]

22. Agree wholeheartedly...

...this little episode will stay with him until the end of his days, and beyond. It is such a fitting symbolic epithet thrown at him by someone who lived through the wonderful gifts bestowed upon Iraqi society by Bush the Lesser.

Let's all make sure this video does not die. It needs to be replayed every year on the anniversary, and it ought to dog Bush until the day he dies. Thereafter, it should still be played every year, as a reminder of what an evil little twit he was and what great evil he and his neocon masters perpetrated upon the world, all in the name of the poisonous ideology.

It was a fine symbolic gesture!