The Significance of Shoe Throwing and the Bush Foreign Policy Bottom

President Bush ducks a show thrown at him today during a news conference in Baghdad. The show thrower, an Iraqi journalist, was reported by the AP as saying, “This is the farewell kiss, you dog,” and “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”

I woke up from a nap today and my wife told me that an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush today in Baghdad.

Admittedly, I think Bush has been a fool and he and his administration (ie. DICK Cheney) seemed to have dropped the tranny while the car was in reverse early in his first term.  This topic has been covered here before, and frankly, I’m bored with it.  This shoe throwing, however, deserves some attention.

If you spend any great amount of time outside of the 50-state strip mall we call America, and you’re not a jerk, you’ll pay attention to the cultural mores and taboos of the regions you visit and attempt to conform so as not to piss off the locals.  Eleven years ago I had the opportunity to spend some time in the Persian Gulf region.  I learned that one should mind their feet in the Arab world.

Well into my pints and having a grand time chatting with a Saudi businessman in a Bahraini hotel lounge, this big Arab guy was suddenly looming over me in my overstuffed leather chair, glaring.  My new friend got a flash of “Houston, we have a problem …” in his eyes and nodded toward my crossed leg and right foot propped up on my knee.

I instantly knew I had offended Big Arab Guy – he had sat down in a chair that left the sole of my right foot pointing at him.  I apologized in Arabic, put my foot down, apologized again and Big Arab Guy exchanged some quick words with the Saudi and returned to his seat.

I told my new friend sorry, and he shrugged it off. 

As a sign of profound disrespect, Iraqis pounded images and statues of Saddam Hussein with their shoes after his regime fell in 2003.

The point is, many Arab men can get their dander up pretty easy over points of honor or respect that wouldn’t even register here.  But feet — those are a level one violation.  The soles of one’s feet are thought by Arabs and many Muslims to be the dirtiest part of the body.  When you enter a mosque, the first thing you do is remove your shoes and socks and wash your feet.  Showing the soles of your feet is considered a grave sign of disrespect.

What Bush got today was the amped up version — you remove your shoes and slap someone with them.  In the case of U.S. heads of state with Secret Service protection, throwing your kicks at the prez will do just fine.

In any event, today’s shoe throwing is Bush’s official foreign policy bottom.  What should have been a quick PR trip to surreptitiously declare “Mission Accomplished” one more time before he leaves office will now be remembered for the shoe throwing incident.

Today I didn’t gloat over Bush getting what he deserves.  I genuinely felt a momentary pit in my stomach.  My how we’ve screwed things up so badly that a President of the United States would be shamed in such a profound way.  The Bushies probably don’t even realize what a low point this was today.