A protester disrupts Himself's would-be "victory" lap in Baghdad, adding much-needed hijinks to the final days of an epic failure.
The Iraqi journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, 28, a correspondent for Al Baghdadia, an independent Iraqi television station, stood up about 12 feet from Mr. Bush and shouted in Arabic: “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!” He then threw a shoe at Mr. Bush, who ducked and narrowly avoided it.
As stunned security agents and guards, officials and journalists watched, Mr. Zaidi then threw his other shoe, shouting in Arabic, “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!” That shoe also narrowly missed Mr. Bush as Prime Minister Maliki stuck a hand in front of the president’s face to help shield him.
Mr. Maliki’s security agents jumped on the man, wrestled him to the floor and hustled him out of the room. They kicked him and beat him until “he was crying like a woman,” said Mohammed Taher, a reporter for Afaq, a television station owned by the Dawa Party, which is led by Mr. Maliki. Mr. Zaidi was then detained on unspecified charges.
Other Iraqi journalists in the front row apologized to Mr. Bush, who was uninjured and tried to brush off the incident by making a joke. “All I can report is it is a size 10,” he said, continuing to take questions and noting the apologies. He also called the incident a sign of democracy, saying, “That’s what people do in a free society, draw attention to themselves,” as the man’s screaming could be heard outside.
Really, ya just gotta love Junior. He takes a break from pardonin' turkeys and avoiding even the appearance of giving a shit about the death-spiral of the economy, for a last-minute "legacy" stunt. Al-Zaidi basically lobbed the most grievous insults imaginable in that culture, essentially saying, "Fuck you, you wrecked my country."
And what's Bush's response? He cracks a lame joke and goes right into the Freedomocracy™ boilerplate unfazed, even while everyone can hear the poor sap getting the shit kicked out of him. He dismisses the man's assertions by characterizing it as attention-seeking behavior, just another empty narcissist from some reality show. He should know.
5 comments:
If only Maliki would award Zaidi the Prime Ministerial Medal of Freedom for exceptional meritorious service. There's bound to be more than a few votes in it.
That would be pretty cool. He's earned one at least as much as Tenet or Bremer.
"..journalists in the front row apologized to Mr. Bush."
Exactly how they got to sit in the front row in the first place, just as their bretheren in the Homeland have done for the past eight years. I say it's time to move Mr. Zaidi to the front row, where he could have an even more positive effect.
Odd that nobody else has mentioned H Beam Piper. He also wrote A Planet for Texans, about a world where politicians could be freely killed by screwed over constituents.
"Fuck you, you wrecked my country" And under Saddam, it was a paradise, of course!
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