My immediate reaction to the news that an Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at President Bush was unsuppressed glee.
And after some consideration I'm still glad this happened. I get the impression that President Bush is insulated from the consequences of many of his decisions, although his recent interview with ABC News belies this a bit. Still, it's nice to see him directly confronted - in such an essentially harmless manner - with someone who disagrees with him.
Also, I gotta say that President Bush showed some impressive reaction-time.
All that said, it was amazingly unprofessional of reporter al-Zaidi to do this.
Reporters get more access to the president than the rest of us, and one reporter hurling shoes may cause that access to be diminished for the rest.
I suspect that al-Zaidi's career as a reporter is over.
His new career as a popular hero to the Arab world is off to a great start, though.
Al-Zaidi has been detained by Iraqi Authorities. Thousands of people have marched in the streets of Sadr City, demanding his release.
There are reports that he has been injured. It seems likely that he was immediately injured by the Prime Minister's guards. Hopefully he has received treatment for his injuries, and there has been no further violence against him.
Meanwhile, the shoes have become nearly as much of a symbol to the Arab world as al-Zaidi himself has become. Perhaps moreso. A Saudi businessman has reportedly offered 10 million US dollars for the shoes. (I don't know that anyone has offered monetary support for al-Zaidi at this time. Many, many lawyers are volunteering to represent him, though.)
It is unknown who has possession of the shoes at this time.
I think President Bush should keep them, if he has them. Specifically, I think he should issue a public thank-you to al-Zaidi for the shoes, which were clearly offered to President Bush in a heartfelt manner. President Bush could then donate them to the Smithsonian (which hopefully would display them next to the ruby slippers from Wizard of Oz in the the Popular Culture wing of the American History Museum.)
Hopefully the authorities will show some amount of grace and humor, anyway. President Bush has impressed me with his reactions thus far.
Meanwhile, I think al-Zaidi should be convicted of "insulting a foreign leader and the Iraqi prime minister" but then his sentence should commuted and he should be placed on probation and released.
It would be amusing if one of the terms of this probation was that he remain unshod for some period of time, but this is probably unnecessary.
He shouldn't be martyred. He shouldn't be made into a hero. And we should keep the shoes.
UPDATE: Al-Zaidi supposedly appeared before a judge within the Green Zone today, but he's not been seen in public since being removed from President Bush's press conference with the Iraqi Prime Minister.
UPDATE 2: The international reaction is fascinating.
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2 comments:
I have to strongly disagree with your statement that al-Zaidi be convicted of insulting Bush and the Iraqi prime minister. This is tantamount to punishing free expression. While Iraq (and, sadly, most other nations in the world) has nothing like our First Amendment protecting freedom of speech (and press, religion, assembly), it would behoove the president to forcefully (yet politely) declare that al-Zaidi shouldn't be charged with anything beyond what amounts to a misdemeanor assault. For the American president to sit back and let someone be charged with a crime that specifically penalizes offending a political leader is, in my mind, an unexcusable betrayal of ideas behind this nation's most important rights.
Misdemeanor assault sounds good to me. I'm sure there's some law under which winging your shoes at somebody is discouraged.
That being said, if the Iraqi government wants to charge the dude with something that sound excessive to us, are we in a position to tell them they can't? Aren't we supposed to be getting our nose out of their business? Telling them what to charge him with and how to sentence him seems kind of imperial.
Hopefully the Iraqi government can find some humor in the situation, but we can't force them to do so. Or we shouldn't be able to force them to do so, anyway...
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