Condi re: shoe incident: "is a kind of sign of the freedom that people feel in Iraq"

[sabra]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hKO6E2Vs5MktD_-DXHsbQ6tnT1-QD953ALB80

<snip>

The Bush administration's top diplomat, who leaves office in 36 days, testily defended U.S. intervention in Iraq as an effort worth the cost in lives, money and heartache.

Trying to put the unsettling image of an Iraqi television reporter hurling his shoes at a visiting President Bush in the best possible light, Rice said it demonstrates how far the former dictatorship has come.

The shoe incident Sunday in Baghdad "is a kind of sign of the freedom that people feel in Iraq," Rice said.

The Iraqi man yelled at Bush that the shoes — a gesture of profound disdain in Iraq and elsewhere in the Muslim world — were a goodbye present to a dog.

Bush brushed it off, and Rice called it insignificant in comparison to the development of a pluralistic democratic government in a country once devastated by Saddam's brutal rule.

[AspenRose]

1. And she would know about shoes....

:eyes:

[tridim]

2. So I guess Condi doesn't mind if she gets a shoe thrown at her too.

Because it represents freedom dammit.

[zbdent]

9. so she was shopping for freedom when people were being killed by

the after-effects of Katrina?

[Johonny]

13. Just think it must mean the Iraqi economy is doing great

Who throws a shoe but a person that thinks they can afford to buy new shoes.

[malaise]

3. Stay out of my way Condi

or I'll show you a sign of my freedom with these

[PCIntern]

4. WTF? This is nuts...

it's like saying that Charles Whitman felt 'free' in the Texas tower massacre. Outrageous,

[stillcool]

11. I think the Iraqi's were more free..

to throw shoes without the United States invading and occupying their country. Now, Iraqi's behaving like Iraqi's in Iraq, 'outrages' Americans.

Dec 06, 2005
Iraq Parliamentary Elections: Allawi Gets The Boot

If you recall, Najaf is the home base of Moktada al-Sadr, now a coalition partner in the main Shi'ite electoral slate, the United Iraqi Alliance. Also, Najaf was the scene of a military standoff in August 2004 between U.S. troops and al-Sadr's militia. As the Prime Minister at the time, Allawi, a secular Shi'ite (and ex-C.I.A. operative) stood solidly behind the U.S. effort.


It may have been because he interrupted a funeral. (In the third shot from the top, you can see a casket being led out the entrance with Allawi's contingent just beyond.) The yellow circles in the next two shots are not thought bubbles. They are evidentiary circles drawn to point out how Allawi and company were run off in a hail of shoes.

I guess Allawi's Ba'athist past doesn't make him the most popular guy in more religious Shi'ite strongholds. Many cultures have unique rituals of social denunciation. In Iraq, as I'm told, the throwing of shoes is the single worst insult that a person can make.
http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2005/12/iraq_parliament.html

[Thothmes]

15. Wonder what would have happened to this reporter

if he had thrown his shoes at Saddam. Any guesses.

[stillcool]

19. I have no idea...

I'll bet he wishes Saddam were back though. Wouldn't you?

[Thothmes]

24. Probably not.

The old regime was very intolerant of an dissention. It was usually met with considerable brutality. I can sympothise with the Iraqis wanting us out. But I do not think that that translates directly into great desire that the Bath party and Saddam were back in power. JMO.

[stillcool]

26. Well jeeze..they had running water..

electricity, they lived together peacefully, highly educated, had jobs, were a secular society, weren't getting killed or bombed for years on end. Tough choice.

[Thothmes]

27. Other than the political prohibition

of voicing ones opposition to the policies of the Bath regime. Doing so normally had very severe and unpleasant consequences. How much of your civil liberty would you sacrifice for those things you enumerated.

[stillcool]

28. I kind of like life myself...

[Thothmes]

29. Had this happend at a Saddam news conference

you can bet he would have lost that. His executioners would have had electricity and running water thought.

[stillcool]

30. Perhaps he would just get tortured?

In that case it is really no big deal is it? After all he's already been tortured. Of course, if he had electricity and running water, and his country wasn't in rubble, and over a million of his fellow Iraqi's weren't dead, perhaps he would be more gracious to George Bush. Then again if the U.S. hadn't put Saddam in power in the first place..

[htuttle]

21. Not sure, but I bet the reporter would have had electricity and running water that morning

...so he undoubtedly would have been in a better mood.

There's nothing quite like 'not being able to flush your toilet after having members of your family killed and yourself tortured' to piss a person off. Sort of sets the tone for the whole day.

:shrug:

[uppityperson]

5. and now he is locked away somewhere, undergoing who knows what.

good lord condi, pshaw

[driver8]

6. Iraq is now a country devastated by Bush's brutal rule.

Good lord, these people are absolutely insane!

[Solly Mack]

7. Damn

[Dangerously Amused]

8. Well Condi, as someone who spent thousands on shoes while thousands drowned in Katrina,

I'd say your opinion on the matter is just as worthless and asinine as you are.

[supernova]

10. God, just STOP IT!!

The stupid! It Hurts!


x(

[burythehatchet]

12. It really become hard to discribe the feelings of WTF these people inspire

[VOX]

14. Trying to make a diamond out of a turd.

Spin it all you want, Condi, but no matter how you do, it still comes out as **MISERABLE FAILURE** !! :grr:

[uppityperson]

16. Hey Condi, you know he's at the US run Camp Cropper with broken ribs, hand, imobile arm?

Was that from the beating he got right after this, or is it from what has happened since being taken into custody you arrogant (female dog in heat bad word).

[mrreowwr_kittty]

17. Does that mean we can throw shoes at you and your fellow neo-cons here in the US?

Didn't think so. :grr:

[htuttle]

18. OH. My God. I SO can't believe she just said that...

[marmar]

20. You spin me right round, baby, right round, like a record baby - round, round, round, round.....

:crazy:

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

22. well, ok, except for the part where he was dragged off to be

tortured in prison that is

[Cha]

23. condi rice continues to be a stubborn idiot who

worships at the altar of bush. condi might feel differently if she had to go over there to fight and get maimed or have a loved one get killed like thousands of Americans and over a million Iraqis did.

She can get up and defend their illegal, misbegotten War On Iraq but the facts speak for themselves.

Fucking almost ruined America financially but we got rid of that fucking 3rd rate dictator and so close to the oil..the oilfucks can smell it, eh condi? You and that sleeze fuck, cheney?

Our country rejected you and the corporatedmediawhores who puffed your ass up for the last 8 years.

[JVS]

25. Is she calling us less free than the Iraqis?