Shoe Heard Round the World: I Polished up my viewpoint by making some small changes and sent it on to the Globe and Metro West News.


Some have said that the shoe thrower should have voiced his opposition to US policy by verbally registering his anger instead of throwing a shoe. Do those who would suggest that really think that the Iraqi journalist who opposes an occupier and an invader under false pretenses has any hope of vociferously uttering disagreement of US policy? How would we feel if we were god forbid invaded by a foreign country with massive weaponry equipped with shock and awe deployment and then that foreign power stayed unwanted in our country for an undetermined amount of time?

That journalist was making an insulting statement loud and clear by Arab standards NOT American standards, the only way he could and be observed and heard by the entire world. Bush was right he wanted attention and attention he got. He wanted attention to shout that he hated the US violent invasion and occupation of his country. He hated an invasion which was directly responsible for the sectarian violence and killing that followed. He hated the ruination of what stability that country had, and he hated most probably the elevation of Iran and the entrance of Al Qaeda into his country where it never existed before. Without US interference, for better or worse, Sadam, who knew how to control that country, would probably still be in power today. It, indeed, may not have been heaven but may have been a hell of a lot better then what ensued after his fall. Better is a relative term. The hubris of the unnecessary preemptive US invasion promulgated through lies might make one just a little bit irritated. How effective would a verbal or written objection by that journalist be? Let's face it it would have meant nothing. One might say this was the shoe throw that was heard round the world.

So which is worse to that journalist, Sadam's hammer-like but relatively stable rule or the US invasion which killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, sent millions into exile, decimated and tortured families creating what is now really a failed state? Some said what the journalist did is a joke to the American people. I don't think so and I do not think it is a joke in the Arab world. It is far too serious and the symbolism too great to be a joke and certainly that is no joke to me!