Bush Gets the Boot and so Should We

An Iraqi reporter removed both of his shoes and threw them at President Bush as he was making his farewell speech to Iraqi government leaders and invited reporters in Iraq. The Iraqi reporter missed his target. Throwing shoes is the most demeaning insult one can imagine. He, the reporter stated that here is what Bush deserved for leaving Iraq with so many orphans caused by Bush's war. The reporter was arrested by the Iraqi government amidst swelling popular demonstrations demanding his release and supportive of his shoe-throwing action, displaying the distrust and anger against our country. Bush literally got the boot from the Iraqi people who have sustained hundreds of thousands of civilian war deaths (some estimates put the number over one million), and caused untold suffering and deaths from diseases caused by contaminated water and foods. Thousands of equally innocent American lives have been lost and tens of thousands have suffered debilitating life-long injuries because of this war based upon lies, and still supported by our current President.

We, the American people collectively deserve kicking ourselves with our own shoes for submitting to Bush war-mongering tactics for nearly 6 years. Why were we so paralyzed to accept Bush's actions without much opposition. Simple folks--the Iraqis and only a few American military volunteers were dying as a result. We were separated from the deadly havoc that reigned death daily upon the people of Iraq.

Throwing two shoes at a man, who may be considered as the first American President who could be accused as a "War Criminal", is but a minor incident. Yet the reporter was accused by the puppet American Iraqi Government of a "barbaric act" potentially subject to a death penalty by the " Democratic Iraqi Government" we have structured.

Will we ever learn from the past? Will we ever tame the wild beast that seems to inflame us during times of stress and learn to "count to ten" before reacting with a knee-jerk, go-to-war reaction? The world's innocent peoples have suffered because of compulsions to strike back even if the perceived enemy is totally innocent.

Perhaps the two shoes thrown at President Bush is symbolic of the fact that there are some among us who are sick of war for the sake of war. Let's throw our shoes instead at any boneheaded leader who believes that so-called "preventive war" is justified. Maybe the stench from our sweaty feet will make him or her think twice.