The shoe throwing incident could not have happened under the previous Iraqi regime. A reporter exercises his new found freedom by attacking the man responsible for bringing him that freedom. Yes, the Middle East is a complicated place.
This was not a brave act; it was a cowardly act. It's like the religion haters in the US who harass anti-gay marriage churchgoers or dunk a crucifix in a jar of urine and call it art. Try that in Europe with a Koran and see how far you get. These are not brave acts of free speech. Christians are easy targets because they don't cut heads off and burn down cities in a fervid rampage, foaming at the mouth and screaming all the while like a flaming pack of hemorrhoids.
No, Christians just shake their heads and move on. The Judeo-Christian God is too big to be insulted. As Cecil B. DeMille once said, "Man cannot break God's law, he can only break himself against God's law."
So throwing a shoe at President Bush was too easy. The president displayed some lightning quick reflexes, shook his head, and moved on. That Saddamite reporter will not suffer the fate of Iraqi reporters before him. He will not find himself chained to a lamppost in his neighborhood, bleeding out from the mouth because the government cut his offending tongue out. No, he will live to throw shoes another day. And that makes me happy. I am proud that we have carved out a place in a cauldron of hatred where people can express themselves without being killed for it.
Now, if that reporter, or any liberty lover, really wants to speak truth to power he could do it in lands uncontaminated by President Bush's hand. Let's see him throw a shoe at Egypt's Pharaoh Hosni Mubarak, Syrian tyrant Bashar Assad, or any member of the Iranian theocracy. That would be a brave statement.
4 comments:
Everyone is missing the point. This shoe throwing event vindicates President Bush's invasion of Iraq.
Had the reporter thrown the shoe at Sadam, he would have been tortured to death and his family persecuted.
Concern for his family alone would have kept him from throwing the shoe during the Sadam regime.
Bush removed that oppression.
This is the sort of article that needs to be longer, and explain itself a little more in-depth.
This incident is a bit of an easy target, just like making fun of Bush's intelligence and way with words is an easy target for the left.
Mind you, I agree. I'm glad the US went into Iraq and Afghanistan (although I think Afghanistan and Iran/Saudi Arabia or both would have been better) given that Iraq was one of the most secular middle-eastern countries at the time of invasion.
I think you need to get your history straight Silverfiddle. Christians are just now practicing the anti-violence Jesus suggested 2000 years ago. As with anything else, age brings wisdom.
You can't look at Scientology, Mormonism, Islam, and to some extent atheism, which, just in the last 100 years has become socically acceptable in the west (still not politically acceptable in North America, BTW) and compare them to the most well established religion(s) in the world. That have had it all their own way for so long that just now they can shrug off a sly remark against them.
And, the same way I don't blame you for the crusades, you shouldn't try to blame all atheists for some Washington sign or whatever (not that that's a real issue either way).
Harrassing church goers is obviously not a nice thing to do (and I wouldn't condone it), but neither is taking away rights from one of the most antagonized groups of people in all of history (gays). Well, actually atheists could contend for that title as well. Does that mean we'll get to go to heaven after we die? Ironic.
It's what Hank said: This could not have happened under Saddam. The reporter attacked the person who gave him the right to attack authority.
My point was not to defend the proposition that Christians are all peace-loving, but that attacking Christians in America is not making a brave stand against religious oppression. Just like this reporter's action was not a brave stand.
He did this in one of the freest countries in the Middle East. Only Lebanon and Israel come to mind where one could do this without being tortured or killed.
Probably a poor comparison, but I'm tired of people yapping about "speaking truth to power." In America, as in Canada, we can get pretty disrespectful towards our leaders without fear of reprisal. And Christianity is also an easy target.
It's easy to attack someone you know will not retaliate.
Who cares--dang guy missed Bush!!
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