Bush dodges shoes

[Moontanman]

George Bush proved to be fast on his feet today when in Iraq while talking in front of the media a man threw two shoes at him. Bush was able to dodge both shoes and quipped he didn't think it was a big deal. In the beginning of the Iraqi war it was shown that throwing shoes at someone or putting the soles of your shoes on the person or their image was a huge insult. At the beginning of the Iraqi war the Iraqi people were going out of their way to place their shoes on Saddam Hussein and his images and statues. Now it's George bush, is this more significant than George tried to let on today?

[paigetheoracle]

How dare anyone attempt to shoe-t The President? Alas this wasn't a lone gunman on his uppers, who succeeded in his attempt - it was a sole gumshoe man, who failed to kick *** (Keep your foot in it next time and put it where the sun don't shine - Yes that's right, right between GW's ears).;)

 

Bush is a heel and I'm not lacing my statement with anything innocuous, even though it's Christmas (I hope you can see my tongue sticking out, even from there!):)

 

Anyway enough of this Maliki Mularky - Happy New Jeer to you all!:)

[questor]

How would you feel if Obama was hit by this person? Would you also be happy about that? I think this speaks more about the way some people feel about their country and themselves than the way foreigners feel about us. If this shoe thrower is a barbarian for attacking someone who tried to free him and his countrymen from a murderous dictator, how cute is it that some Americans support that behavior? Makes me puke! Do we also make cute about the next terrorist attack on our citizens?

[paigetheoracle]

How would you feel if Obama was hit by this person? Would you also be happy about that? I think this speaks more about the way some people feel about their country and themselves than the way foreigners feel about us. If this shoe thrower is a barbarian for attacking someone who tried to free him and his countrymen from a murderous dictator, how cute is it that some Americans support that behavior? Makes me puke! Do we also make cute about the next terrorist attack on our citizens?

 

He threw a shoe, not a grenade and as for how people would feel if t was thrown at Barak Obama - again it's just a shoe and the latter has been threatened with worse by white supremacists.

 

How many people did Sadam Hussein kill and how many have killed by the American invasion - men, women and children? Saved from death by death isn't much of an exchange is it? To quote Gandhi 'What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?' It is the physical result of the act and the true motives behind the act that matter, not the supposed subjective reasons for doing something. To quote Gandhi again 'An eye for an eye will soon make the whole world blind'.

 

The terrorists are as misguided as the Bush government - both have blood on their hands and both have suspect motives for their violence upon others.

[questor]

Is it in the tradition of Ghandi to throw shoes at people or to make jokes about it?

I'm sure many Iraqis would probably throw shoes or grenades at many of the people who risked their lives to save them, or perhaps at you if you were there. This was an attack upon Bush intended to hurt him. The Iraqi government got it right by punishing him. Too bad some Americans sided with the attacker.

[Moontanman]

While i don't completely understand why throwing a shoe is such a horrendous insult it doesn't surprise me a guy tried to insult our president. I could be wrong but this guy wasn't even an Iraqi if I read the news correctly. Why would we expect them to act any more intelligently than we do. Yes Saddam was a very bad man, he needed to go but taking him and his cronies out up set the apple carts of many people. Not to mention the people who were harmed just as collateral damage. To think no one would have an axe to grind with President Bush is asking more than a bit much. I cannot imagine me welcoming a invasive force into my country no matter how well intended they were. I think the whole episode is just an example of how no good deed goes unpunished and that no matter what you do you cannot please everyone. In the beginning of the war the Iraqi people were glad to get rid of Saddam, once that was done they saw an invasion force taking over their country. I doubt any real American would put up with that if the tables were turned.

[HydrogenBond]

What I noticed was, Bush is athletic. He didn't even feel the need to raise his hands to protect himself. He just slightly moved his head without getting all upset. What would have been better, is if he caught the second pass and fired a fastball back and clocked the dude. The other guy had a good arm and may have also been athletic. Maybe Bush didn't want to risk nailing an innocent bystander, if the other guy ducked and the guy behind him wasn't paying attention.

[paigetheoracle]

Is it in the tradition of Ghandi to throw shoes at people or to make jokes about it?

I'm sure many Iraqis would probably throw shoes or grenades at many of the people who risked their lives to save them, or perhaps at you if you were there. This was an attack upon Bush intended to hurt him. The Iraqi government got it right by punishing him. Too bad some Americans sided with the attacker.

 

It's just a shoe - even George laughed about it and ducked skillfully away. You are taking this way too seriously as were the authorities in Iraq.

[Roadam]

So we know what he is good at, something at least :)

[paigetheoracle]

So we know what he is good at, something at least :naughty:

 

Well actually it might be more accurate to say he dodged the 'draft' - not only of the shoes but from the vietnam war!:)

[questor]

It's too bad people can't understand this incident was an attempt to physically hurt or maybe even to kill a president of the USA. Suppose he had a gun? Are you comfortable with the fact that someone attacked a sitting US president with malice?Can you understand this could easily been an assasination? What kind of people do we now have in our country that would laugh at this?

[paigetheoracle]

We're the kind of people who see the joke. It seems to me that the shoe is on the other foot Questor! Luckily this didn't turn into a flame or you might have needed to hot foot it out of here! I wouldn't want you to get booted off the forum because of my failure to toe the line (If things carry on this way I know I'll end up getting a reputation as a pedophile!):naughty:

 

It was mild malice - the graveyards and hospitals are full of the real thing. What makes you laugh? Aren't you associating with this situation too strongly? Have you taken your medicine lately? You're getting upset about something that couldn't have killed anyone - how do you feel about all the people that are already dead in Iraq - civilians and servicemen? Bush is a figure head - these are real people who died in real agony or survived, brutalized by the injuries life served up to them. Get a little perspective on this.:)

[paigetheoracle]

It's too bad people can't understand this incident was an attempt to physically hurt or maybe even to kill a president of the USA. Suppose he had a gun? Are you comfortable with the fact that someone attacked a sitting US president with malice?Can you understand this could easily been an assasination? What kind of people do we now have in our country that would laugh at this?

 

Sadly my friend you are what we in the profession call suffering from 'High Anxiety' (See the film but don't read the book! Watch the shower scene and compare it with what it was based on). The guy was trying to shoe the president away, not shoot him:doh: He was treating him with contempt as he felt America had treated his country with contempt, which was probably cathartic for him and others of his countrymen watching. Mental health therapists recommend this kind of activity because it releases feelings in a less destructive way than bottled up hate allows (Gunpowder laid on a piece of paper and set off is all fire and fizz - stuck in a metal container and set off, is explosive). I hope you see the difference and get a good nights sleep: One man watching the original Superman in a different role, jumped up and shouted at the screen 'Don't do it Superman!' , when Christopher Reeve was about to kiss Michael Caine. Please don't confuse reality with paranoia.:doh::):naughty:

[HydrogenBond]

The guy who threw the shoe, threw the first punch, which was a sucker shot. Bush should have been allowed to take one or two free shots. Since that is beneath the dignity of a head of state, he is allowed to have someone to fill in for him as his second. That sort of happened with the host making that decision because of polite protocol. The shoe man did not show up the next day for his hearing. Obviously he did not duck.

 

Here is the cause and affect, logic. He not only almost hurt Bush but also insulted his host, who now looks vulnerable to his political adversaries, for letting this happen. They can get mileage out this. Crap flows down hill until someone is held accountable as the scape goat. From the top of the food chain, may have landed on the head of security. He didn't think he should take all the heat, so he crapped down his own hill. Finally someone shared the crapped with the thug. The thug may not have been aware a shoe can hurt. I am sure he knows now. If Sadaam Hussein had been the host, he would have skinned him alive and made shoes out of him. Iraq is now kinder because of Bush.

[pamela]

hey Paige, your words are really cruel towards Questor. He has a right to his opinion and that has nothing to do with one's mental state. You may find the shoe incident as no big deal, but not everyone agrees with that. This was an insult to our president and a reflection on our country. The fact that this guy flat refuses to give Bush an apology speaks volumes..A casual word, spit, slap, or shoe, its all the same: total disrespect for us and our president

[Moontanman]

Personally I think the idea that there would be no Iraqis unhappy with the American invasion of Iraq is quite unrealistic but attacking President Bush physically is over the top to say the least. If you threw a shoe at the President here you would get jail time at the very least and rightly so. Maybe the Iraqi mind set is different than the American mind set but I'm betting that no Iraqi would have thrown a shoe at Saddam when he was in power. On the other hand the very idea that an Iraqi would feel confident enough to do such a thing speaks volumes about what America has done there, Ten years ago it would have unthinkable for anyone to do such a thing, instant death by the most painful means at best, now it's a protest that people can actually discuss the pros and cons of. I think that is significant to say the least.

[paigetheoracle]

hey Paige, your words are really cruel towards Questor. He has a right to his opinion and that has nothing to do with one's mental state. You may find the shoe incident as no big deal, but not everyone agrees with that. This was an insult to our president and a reflection on our country. The fact that this guy flat refuses to give Bush an apology speaks volumes..A casual word, spit, slap, or shoe, its all the same: total disrespect for us and our president

 

Yes well I may be paranoid too but not that paranoid! Questor has the right to his opinion and has stated it. I have the right to my opinion and have stated it. You have the right to your opinion and have stated it. The shoe thrower had the right to his opinion and stated it. An insult to your country? Only in your mind - even Bush laughed because he was nimble enough to dodge the insult as you'd term it, showing he has a more magnanimous spirit than either of you two. Bush didn't let his ego (pretentiousness) get in the way and turned the whole incident into a joke for which I admire him - you and the shoe thrower let fear turn this whole issue into something menacing, making you and he losers, and people like me and others on this thread (as well as GW) winners*. This is about attitude - the courage to laugh things off or the fear that reacts violently by word or deed, to cover up that fear (face it, deal with it or get counselling - it is giving you sleepless nights you don't need for your mental health sake - I know, I've been there: This is where the science comes in - look up the snowball effect of fear, lack of sleep and insanity/ death).

 

* The Navaho or another tribe of Peublo Indians, used to have a yearly festival where urine and excreta was thrown over everyone to defeat the false pride of the ego but it was given up because tourists who came to witness it, couldn't take getting covered in the stuff: The problem as Eastern Religion teaches heavily too, is between the ears - not in the 'real' physical world. This is where the interpretation of good or bad starts and the defence of our pride starts (See also Emperors New Clothes by Hans Christian Anderson).:)