Size 10 Weapon

U.S. president George Bush, that will leave office by January 20, 2009, gave a surprise “good-bye” tour in the countries he has started a war in – Iraq and Afghanistan. The trip could possibly have been successful, if not an extraordinary incident: Bush was attacked, with a pair of shoes size 10 as the weapon.

As soon as the Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki opened the press-conference in Baghdad, and Bush thanked him in Arabic (!), one of the journalists tossed a shoe, aiming for Bush’s head. Then, with the speed of light, took of his second shoe, and threw it in the same direction.

The first “projectile” didn’t reach it’s target, because the president showed an outstanding reflex of ducking from fast-approaching flying unknown objects, like shoes. The second missed because it flew by to high, as if the attacker though Bush was that grand. Understanding that both attempts failed, and he wouldn’t get another chance like this, the journalist shouted: “This is a good-bye kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog. This is from the widows, orphans, and everyone, who was killed in Iraq!”.

Of course,  the aggressor was quickly surrounded and disarmed (by covering his mouth). It turned out that his name was Muntazer al-Zaidi, and he was a reporter for the Cairo-based TV-channel “Al-Bagdhadiah”. Now al-Zaidi is running the risk of ending up in a prison for at least 2 years, for the attack on the head of another country, that came with an official visit. But if his actions will be seen as an attempt to murder (what kind of shoe he must have to achieve that!), he will be away for more than 15 years. I wonder if he considers his actions worth it.

The self-sacrificing actions of al-Zaidi directly found a special place in the hearts of many people. For example, Khalil al-Dulaimi, the former lawyer of Saddam Hussein, is willing to defend al-Zaidi in the court. Huge demonstrations in Baghdad were held in support for him. Salutatory exclamations are being heard from all corners of the Arab world. “This great Arabic shoe summarizes the history of the rule of the criminal Bush, that is responsible for the deaths of the hundreds of thousands of sons of Islam”, stated Abdel-Sattar Qassem, a professor in politology from the Palestinian Nablus.

The TV-channel “Al-Babdhadiah” showed clips with petitions to release al-Zaidi. The head of the channel, Abdel-Hameed al-Sayeh, stated: “We mobilized all forces to get him free, and all organizations around the world are supporting us. All this story is a test for both the Iraqis and the Americans – will they release or judge him?”. Also, he arguments his point by saying that al-Zaidi should be released because of the freedom of speech, “that the Americans themselves promised to bring to Iraq”. Interestingly, Bush himself sees the incident from the perspective of the freedom of speech.

As he said in an interview to ABC News, “It was fun (sorry, but already laughing at Bush improvising without his speechwriter). I mean, during my presidency I’ve seen many bizarre things, but this may be one of the most bizarre. So well, even this can happend, and it’s a sign of a free society. I am not offended, and don’t have anything against the [Iraqi] government, and i don’t believe that all their media is bad. That guy just wanted to get on TV ( !), and he got. I don’t know what his problem was, but it probably got heard out there”. No comment.

In the meantime, new details were found out. For example, the Italian media-agency AGI found out that this wasn’t a spontaneous action: al-Zaidi planned this day many months ahead, and he didn’t hide it from his colleauges, that supported him.

As it turned out, the only person that physically got hurt was the presssecretary of the White House, Diana Perrino, that got hit in the eye with a microphone, when everyone suddenly got eager to save Bush, and piled on the peacebreaker. Luckily, she got only a  bruise.

The “trauma” didn’t keep the press-secretary from continuing taking part in Bush’s visit to Afganistan. Of course, rumors about the  shoe insindent spread to there, and the journalists there had fun: they even tried to convince one of their colleauges to bring in all shoes from his home, and surpass al-Zaidi’s deed. But for some reason, that still remains unknown, that never happened.