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.
Mr Shoe has been given the boot (Score:2)
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http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/12/2008121618330140949.html [aljazeera.net]
He's been imprisoned and tortured, possibly including having his hand broken. Then forced to write a "confession" in which he reveals that a well-known unnamed terrorist talked him into it (yeah right). Hooray for the new republic!
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Some time after he invades a country for reasons which turn out to be fictional.
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Obviously you don't pay attention- the US doesn't torture because the Bush administration was allowed to legally define torture to exclude our "enhanced interrogation" techniques. No matter that under the Nuremberg Tribunal we convicted Nazis for using those same techniques; we don't torture because we use a moving definition of torture.
The US is also directly responsible for Hussein's execution. We "can't" release many Guantanamo detainees back to their home countries because of fears
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Obviously you don't pay attention- the US doesn't torture because the Bush administration was allowed to legally define torture to exclude our "enhanced interrogation" techniques. No matter that under the Nuremberg Tribunal we convicted Nazis for using those same techniques; we don't torture because we use a moving definition of torture.
What techniques are alleged to be conducted at Gitmo that the Nazis were convicted for? I can't find anything online.
The US is also directly responsible for Hussein's execution.
Reread my original post, and read the end of the second paragraph here [wikipedia.org].
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Our legal system (military and civil) has dealt with and rejected waterboarding repeatedly. From the court martial of Major Edward Glenn, to United States v. Parker et al,
Fits (Score:1)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntadhar_al-Zaidi#Trial [wikipedia.org]
Food for thought (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Food for thought (Score:5, Informative)
Well, Actually in America, assaulting a foreign official, official guest, or internationally protected person is subject to a fine plus three years imprisonment unless they use a uses a deadly or dangerous weapon, or inflicts bodily injury, then it becomes a fine plus ten years imprisonment in the US. If he would have been just harassing him, then it would be six months and a fine.
If the person is a US official, inside the US, then an assault could get fines and imprisoned for one year if it's a "simple assault" and up to eight year and a fine if it is more. If they use a dangerous or deadly weapon, it jumps to a fine and 20 years.
So yea, the US already has it covered quite well, the Iraqi government is a little strict but as the parrent said, what would the punishment of that country's former leader been like?
BTW, It is a fair comparison to look at the former leadership of a country when all of the current leaders have lived and suffered the penalties of the former leadership. It will take time and probably a few generations before people realize how strong laws and punishment don't need to be.
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So yea, the US already has it covered quite well, the Iraqi government is a little strict but as the parrent said, what would the punishment of that country's former leader been like?
So the torture and beatings are okay because Saddam would have done worse? And this is what is supposed to be the claimed moral high ground?
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What the hell are you talking about? The journalist hasn't been tortured or beaten. He was ruffed up when he was arrested but that was because he resisted his arrest and the security (provided by Iraqi's) needed to get him under control. Sure, you can say he just threw a shoe now but at the time, no one knew what he was just doing or what he was capable of and proceeded as if he was a serious threat.
And yes, that is the high and moral ground. It appears that if anything was actually done to him inappropriat
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What the hell are you talking about? The journalist hasn't been tortured or beaten.
What the hell are YOU talking about? http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/22/iraq-georgebush [guardian.co.uk]
Bush shoe-thrower 'tortured into writing letter of apology'
The investigating judge in the case said last week that Zaidi, who will stand trial on 31 December, was beaten around the face and eyes.
So that's both torture and beating.
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Didn't you get the Memo? Nothing supports those legations including the condition of the Prisoner. He wrote the letter of apology in attempts to get out of a sentence and that was just an excise given for being a chicken when it mattered. All of his injuries were acquired during his initial arrest except for the reports of Cigurete burns which isn't apparent if they even exist.
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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!
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You call that torture? Try: major fractures, deep burns by fire or corrosive products, amputations, eye-gouging, being thrown alive into an industrial-sized grinder... and don't bother with a trial at all.
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According to a Mistress of Saddam's [people.com], he also liked to watch videos of his enemies being tortured. During the viewings he'd be smoking a cigar and wearing a cowboy hat while laughing out loud.
It's not much of a stretch to think that he did something similar when he gassed a lot of Kurds...
Torn down already (Score:5, Informative)
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
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"Let's go to Iraq and export our democratic American values"
I thought the real reason for going to Iraq was to look for WMD's... ...and they finally found one! Phew, think about the smell of that one...
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Like many people in your situation, you are infering too much.
First, the US didn't tear down the shoe, Iraq did. Second, it isn't like the same hasn't happened elswhere in the world when the things are created on other people's propery, without permits, unsafe and so on.
Bush is out of office. You can drop the act now.
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It is not an act. It is full-blown BDS. I fear it cannot be cured. Even the healing touch of the Obamessiah may be unable to lift such an affliction.
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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.
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"The Iraqi government was established by and exists at the sufferance of the US."
Sounds like the West German government after WWII.
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Actually, no. The Iraqi government exists at the sufferance of the people of Iraq. The Iraqi populace put the government in place and elected every individual serving. The US provided the frame work for a Democratic Government to emerge instead of a dictatorship with the provisional government but that has been long gone. The Iraqi government that created the constitution was even not only elected, the constitution itself was put to the people to approve. Your a complete and total fool if you think otherwis
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"Elected" (or "referendum") does not mean "democratic" in all places, least of which is Iraq, where Saddam Hussein was often "elected" with 100% of the vote.
Hamas was also "elected". And also shot all opposition in Gaza.
What the people of Iraq voted for, in all likelihood, was "It's getting worse, God make it stop, I'll do anything - sacrifice a chicken, donate to the mosque, vote 'yes' to this complex political document which I, who have never read it, am probably not literate enough to understand if I saw
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And that doesn't really mean jack here. There were multiple candidates, multiple news organizations reporting on them and as of now, multiple elections as their own sovereign nation.
Freedom and US Soldiers (Score:3, Informative)
Doesn't the same apply to Germans and Japanese? Yet IIRC there is still a large US military presence in both countries. And in Iceland. And in a bunch of other places.
I suspect many Iraqis prefer to have US soldiers than a civil war. I haven't taken a scientific poll, so I can't prove it.
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This has already been torn down by order of local authorities as of Jan 30th. They didn't even care that it was built with the help of orphans
The issue was that it was erected on the grounds of a state-run orphanage. Officials determined that overt political statements ought not be on government property.
Too bad (Score:3, Funny)
Re:almost always (Score:4, Informative)
what a shame he didn't have teh better aim.
From what I remember, he threw pretty well -- but Bush also did a good job of ducking.
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UCSD (Score:2)
At UCSD, we already have one of those things.
It commemorated Bush's catline reflexes 12 years before it happened. UCSD is very progressive.
http://stuartcollection.ucsd.edu/StuartCollection/Murray.htm [ucsd.edu]
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UCSD is very progressive.
Yeah, but your artists suck. I thought is was a red rubber ducky.