New Political Blog From James Myers, The Entertainment Critic, New Shoes For Geroge Bush

New Shoes for George Bush

A Political Blog

By James Myers

The Entertainment Critic

 

 

 

            With only 37 days left in his Presidency, must of us just wish George W., would just go away.  Apparently, this includes not only Americans who have tolerated his incompetence for the last 8 years, but also some Iraqis as well.  President Bush is currently on a secret world wind tour that includes Iraq. An unusual incident happened today at the Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan today. As Americans we have treated his attempts at revisionist history as laughable.  His approval rating hitting an all time low of 30%, ‘W” has dedicated the final portion of his administration as an attempt to avoid being labeled as the worst President in American history.  While Bush was hailing his presidency and the progress in Iraq, one of the journalists at the new conference let him know that his occupation in Iraq was less than welcome.

 

            A protester identified as Muntader al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, owned by Iraq and based in Cairo, shouted at Bush in Arabic, “"This is your farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."  At the same time, he was throwing his size 10 shoes at Bush, whistling one past his left ear and the second just over his head.  Iraq has not welcomed the continuing occupation of 150,000 U.S. troops, where over 4200 Americans have died, coupled with an economic loss of $576 billion dollars in the 5 years and 9 months of the war.  These figures do not include the numbers of the wounded, injured and mentally compromised Americans.  The true figure of the intangibly injured may not be known for years to come.

 

            What this incident does call attention to is the loss suffered by the Iraqi people as well.  Approximately 99,000 Iraqi civilians have died in the war according to http://www.iraqbodycount.org/.  Most recently on Saturday, December 13, 2008, 13 more Iraqi civilians died.  Small wonder that the reporter was insulted by Mr. Bush’s attempts to sanitize his utter failure and criminal negligence while making statements like, "The war is not over, but it is decisively on it's way to being won."  NBC news reports that al-Zeidi has lost family in the war and has himself been kidnapped.

            Polls have shown that most Americans believe the U.S. was wrong to invade Iraq in 2003.  Most Americans believe that Bush misled the American people to believe Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, when in fact his administration knew no such weapons exists prior to the invasion, the weapons were never found after the invasion, and Bush’s credibility was forever lost as far as America was concerned.  Apparently, he hasn’t faired any better with Iraqis.  Making a statement, “There is still more work to be done,” triggered the incident as the shoes came flying, one after the other at Bush from a distance of 20 feet.   (See Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRyQpMpcujk).  He said in a recent interview with ABC News that the biggest regret of his presidency was the false intelligence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

            Jennifer Loven of the AP explained it this way, “In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of contempt. Iraqis whacked a statue of Saddam with their shoes after U.S. marines toppled it to the ground following the 2003 invasion.” Recently, A detailed official history of the U.S. effort to reconstruct Iraq after Saddam Hussein's overthrow in 2003 blamed its failings on "blinkered and disjointed" prewar planning, a deadly insurgency and wasteful and ill-managed contracting.  (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28224454/, “Iraq rebuilding woes due to poor planning”)

           

“The study, "Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience,” was produced by a special U.S. auditing group that has dug deeply into the multibillion-dollar reconstruction effort since 2004. It is a detailed summation of the findings from many previous audits and reviews by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, led by Stuart Bowen.

Among its central conclusions is that Washington was unprepared and ill-equipped to reconstruct Iraq in the aftermath of an invasion that led to an insurgency, a collapse of government and an economy that "switched off." The document also suggests that this arose from an ill-fitting U.S. national security structure, which it said could produce an equally ineffective reconstruction effort in future conflicts.”

Bush responded with his typical aplomb.  “So what if a guy throw his shoe at me?”  After an election where the Republicans suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Barack Obama, the candidate who promised to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq in a little over a year, this type of arrogance and ignorance is what we have come to expect from ‘W.’  No wonder your disapproval rating is over 65% Mr. President.  January 20^th can not come soon enough.