There's a few ways I try to see this.

1) From those who will be offended at the shoe throwing to begin with, this will be a great travesty, a perpetual reminder of something they took as a grave injustice, from a rude and ungrateful man.

2) From the standpoint of a reminder that thousands of men, women and children died in Iraq - people caught up in the fight, people we will never know, people they will never name, or count, or be able to tell their stories, its quite a poignant statement. (Now hear me out..) Its not what I would choose to honour their memory, but I can see their side of it, how they must feel, and the level of passion and frustration it took for that man to risk his future and perhaps his life to express himself in the way he did that day.

You may not like that I say this. But at the end of the day, it was just a goddamn shoe.

Bush had to duck a shoe..

But...these kids - someone's CHILDREN, their daughters, their sons....had no chance to dodge the bullets, the bombs, the grenades, the war that marched through their young lives and ended them abruptly.

They built a statue for a man who threw a shoe? His only claim to fame is shoe throwing? Those are some low hero standards.

For the reasons shadow explained, I can see why they might look upon the show throwing fondly, but to build a statue for it? Surely the money spent to build this could have been put to better use, like maybe helping those families who have lost people due to civilian casualties.

True, Kas. But...

"They built a statue for a man who threw a shoe? His only claim to fame is shoe throwing? Those are some low hero standards."

Perhaps the shoe now symbolizes something bigger than the man who threw it.

Wow that's really bizarre.

Just an update, the shoe has been removed.

"Fatin al-Nassiri says Iraqi police told her the statue had to be removed from the orphanage in Tikrit because government property should not be used for something with a political bias."

"...Throwing shoes at someone is a sign of extreme contempt in Arab culture."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090131/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_shoe_sculptur...

Personally I would rather have seen a statue of Bush with the shoe in his mouth.

Oh boy, a shoe with a BUSH growing out of it? That is hilarious.

Oh, and the guy shouldn't be going to jail for 15 years. That is just retarded.

As a side note, does anyone think of Austin Powers every time they read this news story: "Who throws a shoe? Honestly?"

My follow up comment used the word re tarded. Why can I say b*tch and not re tarded? Oy.

That just reminds of me of the old lady in the shoe for some reason. I think it's the bush, makes it look homeie

The flowers in front are a nice touch as well.

TOMA!

Interesting.

I got a kick out of this.

ridiculous.

This shoe ranks slightly lower on the RS (Ridiculous Scale, for those of you not in the know!) than the fact that people on this site can say bi tch but not ret.arded.

"Fatin al-Nassiri says Iraqi police told her the statue had to be removed from the orphanage in Tikrit because government property should not be used for something with a political bias."

I am so glad to see Iraq is already moving in the right direction, look at the logical and legitimate reason they give for the removal, as opposed to the old days where you move it b/c the police said so! (not that you would ever have a chance to make a statement like that)

Another thing I should point out, is that this "tribute" to orphans was built in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown....so I'm sure the people who cam up with this impassioned idea really care about orphans.

Ilook at those that glorify that shoe throwing with joy as the Iraqi equivelent of "Code Pink"

Is there a translation of that poem? Part of me hopes it's a limerick, that starts off-

"There once was a man from Kadush
Who threw both his shoes at a Bush"

Because it would be the crazy icing on the absurd cake.

"But...these kids - someone's CHILDREN, their daughters, their sons....had no chance to dodge the bullets, the bombs, the grenades, the war that marched through their young lives and ended them abruptly."

Blaming Bush for the terrorist attacks in Iraq is similar to blaming America for the deaths caused by Germany during the occupation of France.

Just think: 100 years from now some Iraqi kids will be taking a trip to see the shoe and saying "Daddy, why is there a giant shoe sculpture?"
"Well son, it all started when a journalist threw a shoe at the president of the United States. There used to be a statue of Sadaam Hussein but this was more monumental than that."

any one know where on earth is the show man??

"Blaming Bush for the terrorist attacks in Iraq is similar to blaming America for the deaths caused by Germany during the occupation of France."

...Heh. I never mentioned terrorists UnDave. You did.

And of course, Americans NEVER cause any collateral damage, right? And Bush's original justification for the war (found to be utterly false, then under the guise of "freeing" the Iraqi people went in anyway).....and of course being that these people just went thru hell, why, they should be feeling 100% grateful to you, the average American who most likely, in his lifetime, won't get anywhere near the kind of situation these people just endured.

How silly of me to forget.

Saddam was a jackass, and a better statue could be found. But it doesn't change the fact thise whole thing was a catastrophic mess, rife with problems from the get-go, and people WILL be upset about it.

Course its gone now, seeing as freedom of speech in Iraq only applies as long as it doesn't offend Bush....

I put that in there specifically because you didn't mention the people who came into Iraq and strapped explosive devices to themselves and set them off in crowded areas with the goal of killing as many civilians as they could. You make it sound like we went into Iraq with the goal of killing civillians, which is untrue. Yes we made mistakes, but that happens in war. Things never go as planned. You aren't perfect, no one is.
Saddam was a murderer. We have the mass graves to prove it.

UnDave, even though Saddam was a mass murderer, it wasn't up to the United States to singlehandedly put a stop to him, but it was up to the United States to protect its country from the calculated terrorism implemented by Osama bin Laden ~ therein lies the atrocity of the Bush Administration.

"Perhaps the shoe now symbolizes something bigger than the man who threw it."

It certainly does.

This article clarified to me a lot of things about the Bush-Saddam relationship:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/30/AR200612...?

Good article pequena. I guess it substantiates the idea that there are children (of some of the 3,000 U.S. soldiers needlessly killed) who can look to the Bush Administration to settle their own revenge for (not an attempt) but the needless self-serving slaughter of their parent(s) simply to satiate Bush's gluttonous appetite to settle his own personal vendetta at apparently any cost....including a nation.

Shadow, I love your clarity.