A wealthy Saudi says he would pay $10 million for those shoes. Interestingly, we can assert that while he has been US president for two subsequent terms, Bush will be remembered for the shoes thrown at his face by al-Zeidi.Bush is really a unique politician. Of course, what makes him unique are his beliefs and decisions. Bush is clearly a religious man, and he does not refrain from showing it at every opportunity. After the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, he said he had launched a "crusade." Later, he went so far as to declare that he had made an important decision by "getting in touch with God." As you may remember, during the Republican presidential campaign, Sarah Palin, John McCain's vice presidential nominee, said: "Pray for our military men and woman who are striving to do what is also right for this country. Pray that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them on a task that is from God. That is what we must pray for. That there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."
If what happened and is happening in Afghanistan and Iraq is a "plan of God," who created animate or inanimate beings for a purpose -- and we hereby declare that we consider Him to be free from all defects -- then this is something very serious. There should be a reasonable explanation for why God should make sure that millions of people suffer from all this pain and sorrow as part of his plan.
Let us look at the picture in Afghanistan: It has been living in tragedy. As reported by the Anatolia news agency from Kabul, "Millions of children are trying to survive in the country which is inflicted with hunger and contagious diseases." These reports are provided by international organizations. According to these reports, more than 100,000 children have become disabled and about 1 million children have been orphaned due to 30 years of occupation and war. Almost all of the country's population suffers from insufficient nutrition. In the US operation in Afghanistan, hundreds of children have been killed in bomb attacks. Reports further note that about 1 million Afghan children are living as refugees and that a majority of the children in the country are trying to survive by eating grass and grasshoppers. About 95 percent of the youth population, which totals 11 million, needs to be treated for "war-related traumas." Many children beg in the streets. Each year, tens of children are abducted to be used for organ or drug trade.
The situation in Iraq is no different from the one in Afghanistan. According to Western sources, about 1 million people have died since 2003. About 2 million people have left Iraq while 1.5 million people are living as refugees in their own country. Iraq has been completely devastated. Not only its oil resources, but also its historical wealth has been plundered. Hundreds of infants face the risk of death due to insufficient nutrition, diseases and a lack of proper care. No one knows for certain the number of disabled or injured people. Abu Ghraib-like torture houses have been haunting Iraq as thousands of people have been subjected to denigrating torture in these places.
Now, we ask in retrospect: Does Iraq deserve all this? As we look for an answer to this question, Bush provides us with interesting hints: "The biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq," he told ABC World News in early December. You are the man who gave the order to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people, based on wrong or false intelligence. Then, you tell the entire world that you feel regret for acting on false intelligence.
What will Bush be remembered for? The shoes hurled by the Iraqi reporter. This, too, is tragicomic.
