Iraqi Journalist Attacks Bush
The great philosopher Socrates once said, “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Well one thing I know for sure, there’s at least one Iraqi journalist who hates George W. Bush enough to try and throw, not one, but both his shoes at good ol’ dub-ya. Last week, as President Bush visited Iraq, outside of an US military base for the first time as part of a military farewell tour, journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi tossed both his shoes at Bush while screaming, “This is a farewell kiss, you dog.” If you haven’t seen the clip, you can watch it here.
It’s worth noting that calling someone a “dog” and throwing a shoe at someone is amongst the greatest signs of disrespect in Iraq. A point of fact, when the US tore down Saddam’s statue shortly after invading liberating Iraq, hundreds of Iraqis threw their shoes at the statue. I’ll leave it to you to draw any parallels.
Anyway, so in his second term, Bush became the most hated man around the world and in the US. Bush has achieved the lowest popularity rating amongst any president in the modern era.
But do Asians really care? When’s the last time you heard of massive anti-Bush protests in China? Japan? South Korea? Singapore? Anywhere in Southeast Asia? In fact, as I watch Zaidi’s clip in his attempt to shoe Bush, does anyone in mainland Asia truly hate Bush to such a level. What’s the most recent protest against Bush? The swarm of 1000 South Korean protesters that weren’t down with American beef imports? Hardly an issue related specifically to Bush. The 400 that protested Bush in Kyoto, Japan in 2005? Were any of these protesters willing to go as far as to toss a shoe and “insult of a foreign dignitary” (as Mr. Zaidi is being charged). I hardly doubt it.
There’s really little reason for any discontent from Asia. And as I dig through different Asia-Bush related news across the web, I’m surprised to find that Bush is actually quite informative on Asian matters. During this summer’s Olympics, Bob Costas – NBC’s Olympic Commentator – interviewed Bush days after the opening ceremony, and rather asking sports related questions, Costas turned the interview into an afternoon CNN update. While the main point the public drew from the interview was Bush’s comment that “America has NO problems,” I’m astonished on how articulate Bush was about Chinese national matters during the interview. Given Bush’s track record of silly comments, mispronounced words, and frat boyish pictures, Bush actually summed up his opinions on modern China quite nicely. In the interview, Bush didn’t seem like…well…Bush.
Check out the interview below:
Unfortunately, for Bush at least, he’ll still go down as the worst American President ever.
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