Obama's Economy

Bush’s Shoegate

Richard Nixon, a former President of USA faced his nemesis through the most infamous scandal of Watergate. It was a disgrace for the President of the most powerful country in the world to face the impeachment proceedings and then get ultimately impeached. However, the wire-tapping scandal was more or less an “American Affair” only. On the contrary the disgrace faced by George Bush is universal. A national TV channel has called this episode as the “Shoegate!” The journalist who threw the shoes at Bush did it in a very dramatic manner. According to reports in print media, “As Mr. Bush was speaking, Mr. Zaidi rose abruptly from about 12 feet away, reared his right arm and fired a shoe at the president’s head while shouting in Arabic: “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!” Mr. Bush deftly ducked and the shoe narrowly missed him. A few seconds later, the journalist tossed his other shoe, again with great force, this time shouting, “This is from the widows, the orphans, and those who were killed in Iraq!” Again, the shoe sailed over the president’s head”. 

This act of the journalist has resulted in great jubilation not only all over the Muslim World but in all the countries bullied by the arrogant Bush. Muntader al-Zaidi, the correspondent of the Cairo based satellite TV network, Al Baghdadia has become a hero overnight. This symbolic action of the journalist has a specific background. Right from the day one George Bush has been in true sense the arrogance personified. In USA the most powerful Jewish lobby controls almost the entire American Capital and the Media. Bush had been totally under the control of this powerful lobby whose sole aim is Muslim bashing. Israel was thrust as a dagger in the heart of the Arab world by the Western powers led by Great Britain simply to overcome the guilt of the massacre of six million Jews by Hitler (A Christian). The American Zionist lobby extended full support to this western conspiracy against the Arabs by making Israel the most powerful country. It has been the first priority of this lobby to ensure that no Islamic State especially in the neighbourhood of Israel becomes powerful enough to challenge it or cause any harm to it. 

Saddam was not attacked because he was a tyrant and a dictator but because he posed a serious threat to Israel. In the first Gulf war the Americans were not able to completely destroy or tame him. It was because of this that from the very first day of his taking over as the President, George Bush pressured his security advisors to find him a connection between 9/11 and Iraq to enable him to attack it. This had been mentioned by his former National Security Advisor who later resigned, in his book “Against All Enemies”. When they failed to do so, he took hold of the totally false and made up allegation of the possession of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” by Iraq as an excuse to attack it. The alleged “Weapons of Mass Destruction” were never found. The so called “War on Terror” publicised all over the world was simply a cover to target the Muslims everywhere starting with Saddam. Americans have a two pronged strategy. To ensure their control over the energy reserves of the world both in the Middle East and the Central Asia and to protect the interests of Israel at all costs. 

This suppression of Muslims all over the world by the western powers led by America has created tremendous hatred against them and most of the acts of terrorism including suicide bombings are a result of this brutal suppression. The propaganda against Muslims coupled with the deliberate acquiescence by the autocratic puppet rulers in the Arab countries with the American policies has created enormous hostile feelings against USA in the entire Muslim world. George Bush has become the symbol of this American cow-boy mentality specifically directed against the Muslims. After the destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Muslims feel totally helpless and are seething with anger. The simple act of throwing a shoe at the bully President of the sole super power of the world in a press conference televised live all over the world has somehow become a symbolic revenge and is being hailed by not only Muslims but by all those who have suffered at the hands of the Americans. The Venezuelan President was shown asking for repeated telecasts of the video clip showing Bush ducking the shoe. Among Arabs the worst disgrace to a person is to be shown a shoe. 

This act of throwing a shoe at Bush in a public place is the maximum symbolic punishment a suppressed and helpless people could deliver to a bully and a tyrant. There has been extensive coverage of the event. There are interesting stories in the print and electronic media on the subject. One of the stories relates that calling someone the “Son of a Shoe” is the worst insult in Iraq. In Saudi Arabia, a newspaper reported that a man had offered $10 million to buy just one of what has almost certainly become the world’s most famous pair of black dress shoes. A daughter of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, reportedly awarded the shoe thrower, Muntader al-Zaidi, the 29-year-old journalist, a medal of courage. In the Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City, people calling for an immediate American withdrawal removed their footwear and placed the shoes and sandals at the end of long poles, waving them high in the air. And in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf, people threw their shoes at a passing American convoy. However, some people have also deplored the act as against Arab hospitality towards the guests. But in the major portion of the Arab world the act was being celebrated as an appropriate revenge against the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim stance of President Bush. People may draw sadistic pleasure from the discomfiture of Bush but there is going to be another significant fall out of the act. 

That is the effect of this action demonstrating vividly the hurt feelings of the Arabs on the policy of the new US President Barrack Hussein Obama towards Arabs in particular and Muslims in general. He is already reported to have stated that he would assuage the hurt feelings of Muslims and would visit the capital of an Islamic State to make a speech. He has also been reportedly stating that he would like peace between India and Pakistan for which the dispute over Kashmir needs to be resolved. There was even talk of him appointing former US President Bill Clinton as a mediator for solving this vexed problem. Barrack Obama may be a Christian by his faith but has Muslim blood flowing in his veins. People would be very keenly monitoring his attitude towards Muslims and after the recent act of disgracing the hated President Bush, the Arabs would be too hot and quite difficult for him to handle. Let us hope he realises the gravity of the situation in the Arab world especially in Iraq and Palestine as well as the rising tension in the Indo-Pak sub-continent coupled with the fast deteriorating ground position in Afghanistan. All these hot spots are directly involving the Muslims and the policy of the new US President towards resolving these issues fairly and justly will have a direct impact on the future of the American relationship with the Muslim world on which depends the establishment of the peace in the world. One would like to close the article with an Ayat from the Holy Quran which states, “Watta Izzu Mann Tasha ou, Watta Zillu Mann Tasha ou”. Allah honours whomsoever he wishes, and dishonours whomsoever he wishes”. This has been practically demonstrated in case of George Bush!

About the Author

Mohammad Ashraf is the former Director General of Tourism of Kashmir. He is presently a regular columnist to Greater Kashmir, the largest circulated english daily newspaper of Srinagar, Kashmir.He is also the Vice-President of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, the apex body of adventure sports in India.

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