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Written by Atticus
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Monday, 15 December 2008 00:00 |
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George W Bush's swan song, a trip to Afghanistan and Iraq, has now provided us with the memorable footage of him dodging both shoes of Muthathar al-Zaidi, a journalist from a Sunni television station, says Atticus. Showing the sole of your shoe to someone is very insulting in the Arab world – and being hit by a shoe is pretty insulting wherever you are from.
I must say that, while I am no fan of the outgoing president, I was
rather impressed with his shoe dodging abilities. Maybe he's always
half expecting it. I did, however, also find the whole episode very
depressing.
Watching the footage of the bitterly angry Muthathar al-Zaidi shouting and screaming as he was buddled from the room, I felt for a second what must be an an all too familiar feeling in Iraq – an overwhelming sense of desolation and despair.
Bush's quip that it "was a size 10 shoe he threw at me you may want to know" cannot paper over the fact that five years of war has left Iraq a horribly brutalised place now.
The video footage
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