Shoe Thrown at President Bush

The New York Times has a roundup of Iraqi opinion on the shoe thrown at President Bush yesterday by an Iraqi journalist. Opinion is running about 9-to-1 in favor of Muntader al-Zaidi, who tried to bean the president with a "size 10", although I'm sure a great many Iraqis can identify with this:

"I spent five years in Saddam’s jails," said Saman Qadir, a 51-year-old mechanic. "This journalist has to throw flowers on Bush, not a shoe, because Bush saved the Iraqi people from a bloody regime. Malaki has to raise a case against this journalist."

Here's how Dave Dilegge at Small Wars Journal sees things:

Ain't this just dandy and a pisser to boot - those who have strived - and died - to ensure Iraq's freedom and future place as a responsible partner on the world scene are brushed aside for the latest bash Bush melodrama and a 'real hero' is on the scene - Iraqi who threw shoes at George Bush hailed as hero via The Times. Plenty on this elsewhere, on the dailies and wires - most likely more tomorrow - meanwhile back in the real word ... People care, they die or suffer serious wounds, and their contributions are tossed aside for this. A damn shame it is, indeed.

Nothing follows.

President Bush was reelected in 2004, and is the representative of the American people; and while no one, really, should have a shoe thrown at them in disagreement, it's particularly disrespectful when directed at a sitting head of state who is the guest of the Iraqi government and people.

As always, the American left has erupted in righteous vindication. Take a look around at some of the radical blogs at Memeorandum. It's kind of sickening, really.

See also, "Leftwing Blogosphere Cheers Iraqi Shoe Thrower."

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UPDATE: I published too soon! I should've checked over at Lawyers, Guns and Money, where the brainless ones have not one but two posts up (here and here), plus this from one of their more typically cultured regulars:

You know what? I approve of throwing shoes at (some) people. I think this was the bees knees in political commentary. And I'm really not ashamed to say it ... Throwing a shoe at the tyrant who is singlehandedly responsible for the destruction of your country, the slaughter of a helpless civilian population, the razing of an entire city, the flight of a million or so men, women, and children into refugee status, penury, and prostitution?, its *literally the least protest you could make.* It is not to be deplored, it is to be applauded. I'm ashamed of my countrymen and our representative journalists that none of them has had the courage to at least turn their backs and fart on Bush. Let alone throw some footwear.

Yep, that's the kind of incisive analysis we'd expect from a couple of wanking professors who take $1000 to write book reviews while simultaneously twiddling their Johnson and sipping a few whiskey sours, and from those who really do need to work on their historical methods!