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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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 Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 8:18 pm Post subject: Why I threw the shoe |
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From the horses mouth:
Why I threw the shoe
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I am free. But my country is still a prisoner of war. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act. But, simply, I answer: what compelled me to act is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot.
Over recent years, more than a million martyrs have fallen by the bullets of the occupation and Iraq is now filled with more than five million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. Many millions are homeless inside and outside the country.
We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shia would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ. This despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than a decade.
Our patience and our solidarity did not make us forget the oppression. But the invasion divided brother from brother, neighbour from neighbour. It turned our homes into funeral tents.
I am not a hero. But I have a point of view. I have a stance. It humiliated me to see my country humiliated; and to see my Baghdad burned, my people killed. Thousands of tragic pictures remained in my head, pushing me towards the path of confrontation. The scandal of Abu Ghraib. The massacre of Falluja, Najaf, Haditha, Sadr City, Basra, Diyala, Mosul, Tal Afar, and every inch of our wounded land. I travelled through my burning land and saw with my own eyes the pain of the victims, and heard with my own ears the screams of the orphans and the bereaved. And a feeling of shame haunted me like an ugly name because I was powerless.
As soon as I finished my professional duties in reporting the daily tragedies, while I washed away the remains of the debris of the ruined Iraqi houses, or the blood that stained my clothes, I would clench my teeth and make a pledge to our victims, a pledge of vengeance.
The opportunity came, and I took it.
I took it out of loyalty to every drop of innocent blood that has been shed through the occupation or because of it, every scream of a bereaved mother, every moan of an orphan, the sorrow of a rape victim, the teardrop of an orphan.
I say to those who reproach me: do you know how many broken homes that shoe which I threw had entered? How many times it had trodden over the blood of innocent victims? Maybe that shoe was the appropriate response when all values were violated.
When I threw the shoe in the face of the criminal, George Bush, I wanted to express my rejection of his lies, his occupation of my country, my rejection of his killing my people. My rejection of his plundering the wealth of my country, and destroying its infrastructure. And casting out its sons into a diaspora.
If I have wronged journalism without intention, because of the professional embarrassment I caused the establishment, I apologise. All that I meant to do was express with a living conscience the feelings of a citizen who sees his homeland desecrated every day. The professionalism mourned by some under the auspices of the occupation should not have a voice louder than the voice of patriotism. And if patriotism needs to speak out, then professionalism should be allied with it.
I didn't do this so my name would enter history or for material gains. All I wanted was to defend my country.
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geldedgoat
Joined: 05 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:29 pm Post subject: |
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We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shia would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ. This despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than a decade.
Our patience and our solidarity did not make us forget the oppression. But the invasion divided brother from brother, neighbour from neighbour. It turned our homes into funeral tents. |
These two made me giggle. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:50 pm Post subject: Re: Why I threw the shoe |
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[quote]
Why I threw the shoe
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We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread.
] |
I'm guessing that the families of the Kurds who were poison gassed would disagree with him.
And I'm sure a good many of the Shia would as well. |
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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: Next to a River
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| Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 11:07 pm Post subject: |
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He was upset, he carried out one of the arabic insults and tried to hit Bush with a shoe.
Should he have been arrested and assulted in prison? No!
Should he have expected that it would change Iraq? No!
The US wants to leave and still influence the country. When haven't they wanted that and what country hasn't wanted that?
I would hold the extremists (both sunni and shia) more responsible for changing the attitides than the average US soldier. It took 4 years for the US to adopt the conquer and divide rule of the British.
They obviously didn't walk in with a plan or if they did, it probably changed within 2 months of arriving there. |
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ManintheMiddle
Joined: 20 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 4:32 am Post subject: |
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Big Bird chirped:
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| From the horses mouth |
You meant to say horse's azz, didn't you?
Please tell us you don't believe this drivel. Why, certainly, the Anglo-American "invasion" pit Iraqi brother against brother. As if that wasn't already happening long before Saddam!
Unless your purpose was merely to bait, try not to give so much "air-time" to a very small cog in the wheel. |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 4:43 pm Post subject: |
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This guy is a true AMERICAN.
Says what he thinks and puts the emperor/king in his place.
Chapeau for him and "ecrasez l'infame". That's all America has ever been about and a pity a foreigner has to show 'em how it's done.
DD
http://eflclassroom.com |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:27 pm Post subject: Re: Why I threw the shoe |
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| Big_Bird wrote: |
From the horses mouth:
Why I threw the shoe
| Quote: |
I am free. But my country is still a prisoner of war. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act. But, simply, I answer: what compelled me to act is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot.
Over recent years, more than a million martyrs have fallen by the bullets of the occupation and Iraq is now filled with more than five million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. Many millions are homeless inside and outside the country.
We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shia would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ. This despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than a decade.
Our patience and our solidarity did not make us forget the oppression. But the invasion divided brother from brother, neighbour from neighbour. It turned our homes into funeral tents.
I am not a hero. But I have a point of view. I have a stance. It humiliated me to see my country humiliated; and to see my Baghdad burned, my people killed. Thousands of tragic pictures remained in my head, pushing me towards the path of confrontation. The scandal of Abu Ghraib. The massacre of Falluja, Najaf, Haditha, Sadr City, Basra, Diyala, Mosul, Tal Afar, and every inch of our wounded land. I travelled through my burning land and saw with my own eyes the pain of the victims, and heard with my own ears the screams of the orphans and the bereaved. And a feeling of shame haunted me like an ugly name because I was powerless.
As soon as I finished my professional duties in reporting the daily tragedies, while I washed away the remains of the debris of the ruined Iraqi houses, or the blood that stained my clothes, I would clench my teeth and make a pledge to our victims, a pledge of vengeance.
The opportunity came, and I took it.
I took it out of loyalty to every drop of innocent blood that has been shed through the occupation or because of it, every scream of a bereaved mother, every moan of an orphan, the sorrow of a rape victim, the teardrop of an orphan.
I say to those who reproach me: do you know how many broken homes that shoe which I threw had entered? How many times it had trodden over the blood of innocent victims? Maybe that shoe was the appropriate response when all values were violated.
When I threw the shoe in the face of the criminal, George Bush, I wanted to express my rejection of his lies, his occupation of my country, my rejection of his killing my people. My rejection of his plundering the wealth of my country, and destroying its infrastructure. And casting out its sons into a diaspora.
If I have wronged journalism without intention, because of the professional embarrassment I caused the establishment, I apologise. All that I meant to do was express with a living conscience the feelings of a citizen who sees his homeland desecrated every day. The professionalism mourned by some under the auspices of the occupation should not have a voice louder than the voice of patriotism. And if patriotism needs to speak out, then professionalism should be allied with it.
I didn't do this so my name would enter history or for material gains. All I wanted was to defend my country.
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Word Search results: Saddam not found.
Muntazer al-Zaidi is a Baathist.
Last edited by Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee on Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Leslie Cheswyck
Joined: 31 May 2003
Location: University of Western Chile
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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| ddeubel wrote: |
| Says what he thinks and puts the emperor/king in his place. |
You got clips of him throwing shoes at Saddam? |
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Sergio Stefanuto
Joined: 14 May 2009
Location: UK
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:43 pm Post subject: |
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Oh dear, I couldn't make it past the first couple of sentences. Remarkable how total drivel like that gets printed, even in Comment.
Anyway, breaks down like this.
Saddam Hussein: Saddam was, as we know, an American ally/puppet. When Saddam Hussein does something bad, like turn his state into a slaughterhouse, that's America's fault. However, it is always repeated that Saddam held the factions together - a good thing. America, however, must take all of the blame but none of the credit. Have you ever heard a leftist say "America, to its credit, held Iraq together with its puppet dictator"?
2003 onwards: If two Muslim lunatics set about butchering one another at the earliest possible opportunity, that's America's fault for providing that opportunity. Chaos, civil war, has resulted from the invasion (Iraq was better under Saddam).
Conclusion: When Muslims do something good, like not kill each other, they take the credit. But when Muslims do something bad, like blow themselves up in the middle of a market and kill 70 civilians, that has to be someone else's - America's - fault. No atrocity is an island, nor the sole responsibility of the perpetrator. No atrocity is the fault of the beliefs these people have about God, Heaven, virgins and True Believers (the Shia are infidels). If it weren't for America and Israel and the humanitarian calamity of the West and industrial capitalism, there simply wouldn't be any Muslim violence (nor any problems of any note), since it's clearly a misunderstood religion of peace. |
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ManintheMiddle
Joined: 20 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 6:05 pm Post subject: |
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Stefanuto astutely surmised:
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| No atrocity is an island, nor the sole responsibility of the perpetrator |
Yot got it, bruddah, but the Left--especially the liberal Left, which includes the OP--can never bring themselves to admit that. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 6:29 pm Post subject: |
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| And the Shia would pray with the Sunni in one line... |
Right. Just ask, say, the Ottomans and the Safavids.
This is nonsense; it reads like Rigoberta Mench� and the Indians who never knew how to kill before the white man came, etc. The Shi'a and the Sunni have never lived as the shoe-thrower believes they did.
The W. Bush administration did not create or even contribute much to this more than a thousand-year-old factional dispute within Islam.
The left is eating this up whole, I imagine... |
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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 8:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Muslims were killing each other before the invasion therefore the invasion was justifed. Is that about right? |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:12 pm Post subject: |
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The invasion was unjustified, therefore it is justifiable to murder the historical record? Is that about right?
Catman: I find you and several others here quite monomaniacal on such discussions as these. And annoyingly overly-suspicious as well...indeed, to the point where exchanges become difficult because you keep insisting on seizing upon each and every pretext to denounce the invasion. Like trying to talk about something that merely impinges on abortion with a right-wing evangelist.
But there are other topics to discuss in the world. And not all topics having to do with Iraqi affairs present us with a with-the-invasion-or-against-the-invasion choice. I critiqued shoeman's historical recollection re: the Shi'a-Sunni divide, for example, particularly in the heavily-contested Iranian-Iraqi borderlands, where, as I am sure you know, the primary Shi'a shrines exist. And this goes back to Ali's death, Husayn's martyrdom, etc. The W. Bush administration's invasion did not cause or even exacerbate this; and throwing a shoe at him for this particular reason makes no sense whatsoever -- in fact, it seems ignorant and irrational, not to mention disingenuous, hoping to incite a whole range of people who know no better.
Yet you seem to fear that I am somehow seeking, through some clever trick, to justify an invasion I never supported? Chill, baby. And please do not put issues into my mouth, let alone words... |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:08 pm Post subject: Why I threw the shoe |
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| Because I'm a lackluster journalist who would find the attention useful to my career. |
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ersatzredux
Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Location: Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
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| Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 7:19 am Post subject: Re: Why I threw the shoe |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| Because I'm a lackluster journalist who would find the attention useful to my career. |
and this assessment is based on....?
Did I read the same article as others critiquing here have? His main point seems clear enough and no one has tried to refute it. And until the civil war (which took quite a few horrific bombings to get going), relations between the sects in Iraq were generally very much as he states here.
The Saddam regime operated from its own statist logic and included Sunnis, Shiites, and Christians. They were an equal opportunity oppresser and did not act from motives of religious sectarianism but Arab nationalism.
As well, it was indeed the fact of mixed marriages and mixed neighbourhoods that made the civil war so bloody. If relations then were as bad as people seem to think here, why were they not segregated to begin with?
This was a searing cry from the heart from a man driven past the point of endurance by all the pain and suffering he witnessed and the rank injustice of it all. How can others read it and miss that? Thanks for posting it, Big Bird. |
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