AMMAN -- An Iraqi journalist's unique "farewell kiss" to U.S. President George W. Bush by throwing a pair of shoes at him in Baghdad last weekend has not only turned this television reporter into an instant national hero in much of the Arab world, but it has inspired a storm of political humor - some clean, others unpolished - but all badly needed in a turbulent and grim Middle East.
Since the Dec. 14 incident, in which Bush skillfully dodged - twice - size 10s that Muntazer al-Zaidi of Al-Baghdadia TV had hurled at him during a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, jokes have been bombarding Internet sites, blogs and forums, spreading like wildfire on cyberspace and through text messages.
Although Bush himself sought to downplay the incident with humor, as did his aides in Washington, the shoe-throwing was widely regarded as the most humiliating blow to the outgoing American president and his policies in Iraq and the region.
"This is a farewell kiss, you dog!" shouted Zaidi as he threw his shoes at Bush, in what the journalist's brothers later said was in response to the "gift" that the American president had brought to Iraq.
Unlike U.S. late night show jokes that poked fun at the incident with American-style humor, the incident has unleashed Arabic jokes demonstrating the frustration felt at the Bush administration's 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq and the policies pursued in his war on terror since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but he found shoes of mass destruction instead," says a joke received by text message immediately after the incident.
The American president and his administration's initial justification for the U.S.-led invasion - which was not approved by the United Nations - was that Saddam Hussein's Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), although international weapons inspectors had reported otherwise.
It became apparent that there were no WMDs soon after the U.S. forces toppled Saddam's regime in April 2003, but Bush did not admit having had wrong intelligence information on the issue until days before he made his final trip to Iraq.
This "belated admission," as Arab analysts call it, was for many Iraqis and Arabs too little, too late, especially since Bush continued to justify the war on Iraq, more than five years later, by claiming that the Americans had "liberated" the Iraqis from Saddam's "tyranny" and brought "democracy" to the country.
For many Iraqis and Arabs, however, the war was an illegal move against a sovereign nation, it had dismantled the state's institutions, brought disorder and violence, provided fertile ground for more terrorism, killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, made more than 4 million homeless, and fragmented an Arab country along sectarian lines. In other words, the war is widely seen as having destroyed Iraq.
So when Zaidi threw his shoes at the U.S. president as a "farewell gift" just a few weeks before Bush leaves the White House, the Iraqi journalist was seen as a hero; Dec. 14 was declared the "start of a shoe revolution," and wealthy Arab businessmen offered to pay millions to buy the famous footwear that had narrowly missed Bush's face, but hit the American flag behind him.
Some said that these shoes should be immortalized in a "museum for resistance against American 'insole'nce."
An Internet game (www.sockandawe.com), launched by Britain's Alex Tew, gives a player 30 seconds to take a virtual swipe at Bush. The site, which said Wednesday that more than 7 million "shoes have successfully hit President Bush in his face," has become a favorite in the region.
The Egyptians - known among the Arabs for their exceptional wit and sense of humor - had a field day with creating jokes, particularly in the form of news headlines, about shoes, Bush, the war on terror, U.S.-allied Arab leaders, and the general Arab state of affairs.
A few examples that could be translated into English:
U.S. occupation forces comb areas throughout Iraq in search of terrorist shoe factories.
A man wearing a shoe-belt around his waist has been arrested by a U.S. patrol in Baghdad as a would-be shoe-icide bomber.
Washington adds footwear to its terror list and passes a bill allowing wire taps on shoe stores and factories.
Several international shoe manufacturers deny U.S. charges of aiding terrorist organizations.
A top U.S. intelligence official, saying Zaidi's shoes were made in Syria and Iran, calls for their invasion.
Bush asks Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his accompanying delegation to remove their shoes in the White House, and provides them with soft long-haired bunny slippers.
An emergency Arab League meeting elects to shut down all shoe stores when Western officials visit.
By presidential decree, Hosni Mubarak is now to hold all his press conferences inside mosques [where shoes are taken off outside].
The last joke has been said for almost every other Arab leader.
By Sana Abdallah
© Middle East Times 2008
