Giant Shoe Honors Journalist Who Targeted Bush 60
A town in Iraq has unveiled a giant monument in honor of the journalist who threw his shoe at former US President George W. Bush. The statue, unveiled in former dictator Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, depicts a bronze-colored shoe, filled with a plastic shrub. Fatin Abdul Qader, head of an orphanage and children's organization in the town, said the one-and-a-half-ton monument by artist Laith al-Amiri was titled "statue of glory and generosity." This statue is the least expression of our appreciation for Muntazer al-Zaidi, because Iraqi hearts were comforted by his throw." Mission accomplished.
Food for thought (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Food for thought (Score:2, Insightful)
He would have been tortured, forced into a sham trial, and executed.
Contrast to nowadays, when he is being tortured [wikipedia.org], forced into a sham trial [wikipedia.org], and probably not executed.
Progress!
Freedom of speech? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Let's go to Iraq and export our democratic American values"
"Hey, they're building a statue that says something that offends us"
"Hey, that statute reminds us of violent attacks on rulers"
"Let's tear down this statue, we don't like what it says"
Export democratic values my $DONKEY
Re:Freedom of speech? (Score:2, Insightful)
First, the US didn't tear down the shoe, Iraq did.
What's the difference. The Iraqi government was established by and exists at the sufferance of the US.
If we didn't like what they were doing, we'd topple it and install someone else.
Indeed, that is PRECISELY what happened to the last Iraqi government.