Shocked, Shamed, and Shooed by a Shoe Thrower

The United States Secret Service have always dedicated themselves to the idea of taking a bullet for the President, sacrificing their lives to save the most powerful man on earth. This has been proven many times throughout its history. Security arrangements for the US President always precedes the visit by at least 2 days, to ensure utmost safety, and to assure that all precautions are taken with all factors considered, and activities moving with pinpoint precision. While the US Secret service are willing to die, they may not be willing to take a shoe, and leave it up to their President to be agile enough to duck.

The good news is that President Bush knows how to duck, it's what he's been doing for the last 8 years - ducking all the exposed actions and machinations of his administration that are immoral and illegal with falsified reports, spurious constitutional arguments and outright lies. But the Secret Service has been caught napping by Iraqi reporter and shoe thrower Muntandhar al-Zeidi. What is most embarrassing is that the Iraq trip was supposed to be top secret, where they even released a schedule of activities for the President, only to be seen on a news video being shooed with a shoe, followed by the words " Take a farewell kiss you dog".

The news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was held in the green zone - the most heavily secured part of Baghdad - which turned out to be of questionable safety since the Secret Service and those securing the zone had not checked the background of the Al-Baghdadiya reporter who had been kidnapped as a result of the conflict and has always hated the US presence and Iranian interference. The Secret Service failed to thwart the shoe throwing which was done twice, and could have made the President of the United States kiss corrugated rubber or worn out camel leather with a dash or Iraqi sand. Or, have a visible external lump on his head from the sole of a smelly, dirty shoe - not that he has no internal lumps on his head from constant knocking with the fists from all his superiors and father for mangling the English language - but such a violently caused lump is a shame that all Americans would feel.

While it represents accurately what many Iraqis feel about America and Bush in particular, shaming Americans is too much of an additional burden for the already economically punished citizens. They have been embarrassed enough by 8 years of bungling and cover ups, by the loss of their homes, jobs, and incomes, by the disposal of their very personal belongings to pawnshops to generate needed cash for required expenses to keep themselves afloat. Bush is still the President, a choice many regret after two terms, but any humiliation he gets in a foreign country is a humiliation for Americans. This secret trip should not have been made, and perhaops President Bush should simply be locked up somewhere until Barack Obama's inauguration - to prevent any more miscues and untoward incidents that would only add to his long list of inanities.

The shoe thrower has become a hero, hailed by Arabs and Iraqis who rallied in the streets asking for his release - invoking the freedom of expression provision in Iraq's American made constitution. He has risen from obscurity to become a symbol for Iraq's self governance and interference free political and economic life. A big difference a pair of shoes make - and it is not surprising if many Arabs and even Americans would want to be in al-Zeidi's shoes - or rather have the sole of their shoes caress the face of the outgoing President as a going away relief from all the anxieties brought by the policies and management he has employed. This would perhaps lay to rest their confused predicament, and put an end to their arduous soul searching for what went wrong - and find solace in the sole act of letting their shoes fly.

As to the Secret Service, well the incident on video cannot be kept secret, and their service to an outgoing President has lapsed into disservice. These assigned people need to be retrained for they may have been infected by the incompetence virus of Bush and company after 8 years of exposure.

Haaaarrrrrrwwwwwk...Twooooooooooph...Ting!