Video of Iraqi Reporter throwing his shoes at the US president George Bush during a press conference.
Importantly it shows that Iraq as a country has come a long way. If the guy had thrown the shoes at Saddam Hussien, we would never have heard of it and he’d be dead. Secondly, as least it was a shoe and not a bomb.
On the video Bush speaks about these kinds of protests in a free democracy. I like when he says you drive down the street and people wave, but you don’t see all 5 fingers.
Have your say.
December 20, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Demands for war crimes prosecutions are now going mainstream
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/12/18/prosecutions/
“The New York Times Editorial Page today has a lengthy, scathing decree demanding prosecutions: “It would be irresponsible for the nation and a new administration to ignore what has happened . . . . A prosecutor should be appointed to consider criminal charges against top officials at the Pentagon and others involved in planning the abuse.”
Those who cheer on shameful and despicable acts always want to encourage everyone to forget what they did, and those who commit crimes naturally seek to dismiss demands for investigations and punishment as nothing more than distractions and vendettas pushed by those who want to wallow in the past.
Surprisingly, though, demands that Bush officials be held accountable for their war crimes are becoming more common in mainstream political discourse,not less so.
Even as the desire to forget about the Bush era intensifies with the Promise of Obama ever-more-closely on the horizon, the recognition continues to grow of the need for real accountability.
This facade will be increasingly difficult to maintain. It is already the case, as the Times Editorial today notes, that “all but President Bush’s most unquestioning supporters [i.e., this] recognized the chain of unprincipled decisions that led to the abuse, torture and death in prisons run by the American military and intelligence services.” That leaves only two choices: (1) treat these crimes as the serious war crimes they are by having a Prosecutor investigate and, if warranted, prosecute them, or (2) openly acknowledge — to ourselves and the world — that we believe that our leaders are literally entitled to commit war crimes at will, and that we — but not the rest of the world — should be exempt from the consequences. The clearer it becomes that those are the only two choices, the more difficult it will be to choose option (2), and either way, there is great benefit just from having that level of clarity and candor about what we are really doing.”
December 17, 2008 at 2:03 pm
According to some sites he has broken ribs and a broken arm but I don’t think the intelligence services will be game to kill him as he is a sudden hero right around the world and many lawyers are willing to defend him.
Don’t get too carried away thinking the US has turned Iraq into a democracy. Democracy installed by the US is ‘ we’ll bring our corporations into your country and dig up and control your rescources and we will also install a puppet government who will always come up with policies we agree to’
The US armed Saddam Hussien in the Iraq/Iran war in the 80′s so he was their thug for a long time – then it appears they fell out especially because he wanted to sell oil in euros instead of US dollars and he supported the Palestinians so he became No.1 on the US hit list.
Inside job 911 was done, weapons of mass destruction were yelled about from western media and Iraq was illegally invaded and now the occupiers won’t leave because this US government and Obama’s would rather like to attack Iran.
A lot of people around the world got a lot of joy from the bravery of the shoe throwing Iraqi journalist.
9/11 and the illegal invasion and devastation of Iraq is the achilles heel that can bring down this Ziocon cabal that means to establish complete economic and military hegemony in the world. Exposing this crime is the only thing that has any possibility of forcing a reluctant public to understand and justice must be served and seen to be done .
December 17, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Shoes, eggs, pies, … What next?