Please Mr. Bush don't hold it against them.

This weekend while on a surprise "farewell" tour of Iraq and Afghanistan, "W" had 2 shoes thrown at him during a scheduled press conference.
The president's message on progress in the region was having trouble competing with the videotaped image of the angry Iraqi who hurled his shoes at Bush in a near-miss, shouting in Arabic, "This is your farewell kiss, you dog!" The reporter was later identified as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt.
In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of contempt. Iraqis whacked a statue of Saddam with their shoes after U.S. Marines toppled it to the ground following the 2003 invasion.
"I'm not insulted. I don't hold it against the government," Bush said later in an interview with ABC News. "The guy wanted to get on TV and he did. I don't know what his beef is, but whatever it is, I'm sure someone will hear it." Bahgdad newspaper.

Mr. President, you don't know what his beef is? I realize you don't like to read the newspaper but, maybe someone on your staff does. You might want to ask them for some specifics about conditions in Iraq. Nearly 8 years after declaring "Mission Accomplished" much of Iraq is still without a clean water supply, two thirds of the population only receives electricity a few hours a day, (According to the Special Inspector General for Iraq reconstruction and the U.S. State department: less power is available today than a year ago due to a lack of experienced engineers and technicians, persistent sabotage by insurgents, poor planning, and the on going feud between the Oil and the Electricity Ministries in Iraq. ) Betcha won't hear that reported on Fox news.

Back to more reasons why that guy threw his shoes: hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed by either our military, hired thugs, or by insurgents, (that came a running into the country once we invaded), U.S. bombs blowing up innocent civilians by the executive order of King George. After the invasion thousands of Iraqi's best educated professionals (engineers . . . hello!) career people (those who had the money to leave) have fled the country(those without the money became refugees crossing on foot into surrounding countries. Last year's exodus was absorbed mostly by Syria, which took in some 500,000 Iraqis during the year -- or nearly half of the more than a million people who sought refuge by crossing an international border during 2007. Tens of thousands more Iraqis also found their way to Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Turkey, and even Sweden and Germany, which took in, respectively, 10,000 and 6,700 Iraqis during the year. The "World Refugee Survey 2008", said more than two million Iraqis are currently living outside their homeland, the vast majority in Syria and Jordan.

So you see that the mass exodus has left Iraq with the largely poor and uneducated . . . a perfect breeding ground for religious zealots and terrorists organizations.

"W" quipped with journalist after the incident and even tried to make light of it. I certainly hope that he's not just putting on a happy face and secretly seething inside. While I understand the reporter's anger I don't know how wise it is to insult "W" on the world stage. Remember this guy goes off half cocked at the drop of a hat. He's a born again Christian who looks forward to the 2nd coming of Christ. This guy wants it to happen in his lifetime which of course requires this little happening I like to call . . .Armageddon. 30 days is a long time, and judging by past performance I wouldn't put it past "W".

So, this is my plea to you Mr. President: Turn the other cheek. Ignore the fact that he called you a murderous dog, and thrust upon you his culture's greatest insult. Be Christ like George, forgive him as I hope you will be forgiven. Then lace up that guy's shoes and walk a mile them .

DaG out

UPDATE: it is being reported that the correspondent is currently being held by Iraqi authorities and is being tortured. Tortured by Iraqi authorities? I thought that Sadam was dead and American democracy fixed all that.