Well, right-wing pundits were convinced that Iraqis would be so grateful to Bush for liberating their country that they’d construct statues and name streets after him. It’s taken some time, but finally a monument related to Bush has shown up in Iraq (via CNN):
Quoting CNN,
For the war-beaten orphans of the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, this big old shoe fits.
A monument to a shoe thrown at former President Bush is unveiled at the Tikrit Orphanage complex.
A huge sculpture of the footwear hurled at President Bush in December during a trip to Iraq has been unveiled in a ceremony at the Tikrit Orphanage complex.
Assisted by children at the home, sculptor Laith al-Amiri erected a brown replica of one of the shoes hurled at Bush and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki by journalist Muntadhir al-Zaidi during a press conference in Baghdad.
You know, I’ve always had great sympathy for the Iraqi people and the suffering they’ve undergone, but stuff like this really just makes me think they’re awesome. It puts them in the same league as the folks who tried to get a wastewater treatment plant named after Bush in San Francisco. That proposition failed at the ballot, but the arguments against it were none too flattering to Bush either.
Incidentally, the shoe-thrower himself, Muntadhir al-Zaidi, is still incarcerated in Iraq. His employer, al-Baghdadia television, keeps a prominently displayed picture of him on their home page.
I think we should do the same somewhere in Washington DC. Something to remind us of what a ‘heel’ he was!
After all their country has gone through, it is heartening to see that they haven’t lost their sense of humour.
@A.j.: Washington did have one, but only for a day. Sure wish I had attended the inauguration!
Watch the video in the second link – the last few seconds show Bush getting a real shower.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090120/NEWS02/901200341/1006/NEWS
http://www.delawareonline.com/blogs/2009/01/shoes-and-loathing-in-washington.html
if the Iraqis use their democracy similarly to Americans, then they will re-construct the shoe sculpture after U.S. forces leave (since the original is destroyed now) and make the new one twice as big