The house is being dressed, the party being arranged, euphoria is in the air; the shoe-thrower is coming home.
After serving a one-year-turned nine months sentence behind bars for hurling two shoes intermittently at the former US President, George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad earlier this year, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, is to be released to once again see his family and friends.
Al-Zeidi, an Iraq Journalist with a local news station, who called the former US President a ‘dog’, while he was throwing his shoes at him, became a celebrity for his effrontery and gallantry in actualizing what most middle easterners would have wanted to happen; for someone to register their displeasure, where it mattered, regarding US invasion of Iraq.
Although Al-Zeidi crossed the line and humiliated President Bush right in front of his Prime Minister and in front of the whole world, the US invasion of Iraq, which held the promise of restoring long-lasting peace to the country, led to more problems than was initially envisaged.
The alleged presence of weapons of mass destruction which was the basis for the American invasion ended up being untrue, and while many lives were lost in the process of looking for the nukes, most Iraqis and Middle Easterners were unhappy with the ‘encroachment’ and would want to pass this message across in a way that would be clear.
Al-Zeidi did pass the message across and was punished for it.
After serving a one-year-turned nine months sentence behind bars for hurling two shoes intermittently at the former US President, George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad earlier this year, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, is to be released to once again see his family and friends.
Al-Zeidi, an Iraq Journalist with a local news station, who called the former US President a ‘dog’, while he was throwing his shoes at him, became a celebrity for his effrontery and gallantry in actualizing what most middle easterners would have wanted to happen; for someone to register their displeasure, where it mattered, regarding US invasion of Iraq.
Although Al-Zeidi crossed the line and humiliated President Bush right in front of his Prime Minister and in front of the whole world, the US invasion of Iraq, which held the promise of restoring long-lasting peace to the country, led to more problems than was initially envisaged.
The alleged presence of weapons of mass destruction which was the basis for the American invasion ended up being untrue, and while many lives were lost in the process of looking for the nukes, most Iraqis and Middle Easterners were unhappy with the ‘encroachment’ and would want to pass this message across in a way that would be clear.
Al-Zeidi did pass the message across and was punished for it.
While there are many western commentators who feel that the punishment does not commensurate the gravity of his offense, the news once again is that, the shoe-thrower is coming home.
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