Cowboy George - UPDATED

What could be more illuminating about the George Bush's view of foreign policy that the recent shoe throwing incident in Iraq. President Bush, as usual put a sunny face on it and professed that he found the incident "amusing." “I don’t know what his beef is,” said Bush. “But whatever it is I’m sure somebody will hear it.” Watch it:



Bush laughed it off, as good cowboys do, and went on national TV to declare that the incident was meaningless and didn't represent a "broad movement" in Iraq. Mr. Bush is just laughingly silly! Anyone can look into the incident and find out that the act of throwing a show [and yelling, "This is a farewell kiss, you dog."] is a serious insult and the act actually represented a broad spectrum of Iraqi's who are finally protesting the civilian casuaties of the war. According to Think Progress and the Washington Post the journalist, Muntadar al-Zaidi, is a "hero" and thousands of Iraqis are demonstrating in the streets supporting his actions.

Bush can't change, doesn't want to and is showing that his feckless, good-natured, cowboy world view can still do damage. He holds the key to al-Zaidi's release. If he doesn't drop the charges, look for more demonstrations and a further decline of our nation's reputation. Would he drop the charges? Not likely. Stay tuned.

UPDATE 12/16/08

From Think Progress today:

An Oxfam report from February 2008 put into startling focus what the U.S. invasion has really meant for Iraqis:

– More than four million Iraqis forced to flee either to another part of Iraq or abroad.
– Four million Iraqis regularly cannot buy enough food.
– 70 percent are without adequate water supplies, compared to 50 percent in 2003.
– 28 percent of children are malnourished, compared to 19 percent before the 2003 invasion.
– 92 percent of Iraqi children suffer learning problems, mostly due to the climate of fear.

The Brookings Institute’s Iraq index also notes that the national unemployment rate is somewhere between 25 and 40 percent. Fifty-six percent of Iraqis say things in Iraq are going “quite bad” or “very bad.” Sixty percent rate economic conditions as “poor” and 75 percent rate security conditions “poor.”

These, President Bush, are the issues the Iraqi's are so upset about. These reasons are why a shoe was thrown at you. Yes, you freed 25 million Iraqi citizens....from their homes, food, schools, healthcare, and that famous "piece of mind." Need to hear it again?