The President and the Shoe

What should President George Bush do with Muntader al-Zaidi?  For those who missed it, he is the 29-year-old Iraqi journalist who lobbed two shoes at him during a press conference in Baghdad Sunday.  In Arab culture, showing the bottom of the shoe, let alone throwing it at a person, is among the worst of insults.  

Immediately after throwing the shoes and yelling, “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!” (for the first shoe) and “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!” (for the second), the reporter was tackled.  Seconds later he was dragged out of the room and beaten while the press conference went on, his screams audible.  There are conflicting reports -- depending on whether you are reading U.S. or non-U.S. reports -- as to whether American security forces stepped in to stop the beating. (BBC News, December 16, “Shoe thrower 'beaten in custody'”)

So, with his last remaining days in office, an unexpected and unwelcome sideshow during his final visit to Iraq, and historically low approval ratings, what should he do?  

Well, the first thing he should have done was to stop the press conference and made sure there was no beating going on.  If the man was detained but not being physically harmed, he could have carried on but made sure he announced he was going to talk with the man as soon as it was over.  

But that's crazy!  Why would he talk to a man who had just publicly insulted him?   Because he’s the leader of a great country.   He needs to take the high road, to show that he is not deaf to the pain and suffering going on, that he takes seriously the grievances of the people there.  To show that he would not mearly laugh it off.  It was a mistake to say that the action of one person did not represent the feelings of the many.  In this case, and judging from the countless news reports from around the Middle East of supportive actions, it seems that Mr. al-Zaidi does indeed represent the mood of the region.

Another reason to meet with the man is because he’s a Christian.  He would do well to emulate Pope John Paul II after he was attacked -- with deadly force, not merely shoes -- by Mehmet Ali Agca.  The pope visited him when he was physically able -- often.  President Bush would do much for his reputation and for American-Arab relations if he took this man seriously and truly listened to him.  He would also take his faith seriously, faith which requires us to turn the other cheek, to forgive those who hate us, to account for our own actions.  To make sure the man was physically safe and to listen to him are supremely Christian acts.   

Next, the president would do well to immediately pardon him.  In his waning days in office, he will pardon many people who have caused more harm.  He even pardoned a Turkey at Thanksgiving, so pardoning a man who insulted him seems a small thing.

Wait, you say!  He can’t pardon the man because it is the Iraqi government which controls his fate.  True.  Still, President Bush could easily put pressure on the government to let the man go.  He could publicly state -- to the press of the world -- that he forgives the man and is formally requesting the Iraqi government to drop all charges against him.  It would carry weight with President Maliki and would make a huge impression on the world.  And let’s face it, the man faces between two and seven years in prison for what was an inappropriate but spontaneous and ultimately harmless gesture.  

Let’s also show some Christian understanding.  If you had reported day after day on the carnage in your country, witnessed countless deaths and maiming especially among the poorest of the poor; if you had been arrested and interrogated twice by U.S. forces simply for doing your job as a reporter; if you had been kidnapped and tortured, you just might feel like throwing something a little harder than a shoe.  Perhaps we ought to even give the guy credit for a little restraint.

Finally, President Bush would do well not to duck the issue (pardon the pun) but to publicly address it with the Arab people.  He could let them know he understood the seriousness of the insult, that he disagreed with the methods but knew Mr. al-Zaidi spoke for many.  He could tell them that, while he did the best he knew how, he also realized how many were hurt because of it.  He could apologize for his part in the pain even if he continued to insist on the necessity of the war.  

After all, Christians detest administering pain more than receiving it.  Christians seek forgiveness from those they harm or offend.  Christians are quick to forgive those who harm them.    And, of course, politicians do what is expedient.  But in this case, the Christian action would also be the most expedient, making Mr. Bush look more understanding, compassionate, and in tune with the people around him than he has appeared so far.

So pardon him, Mr. President.  It’ll be good for your soul.

Losing the War

Good News!  Iran is still a threat!  Despite the recent National Intelligence Report on Iran which stated Iran had no nuclear program and would be years away from anything even if they started today, President Bush still asserts they are trying to cause World War III.  What the report really confirmed was what many already knew.  President Bush is seeking a confrontation with that country regardless of the evidence.  

That's how he works.  He decides what he wants and then bends the evidence in that direction.  When he first became president, he went straight for a tax cut that would positively affect only the richest.  The economy was strong, he said, therefore the tax cut is merited.  When the economy started heading south, he argued that we needed the same tax cut to spark the economy.  

Same thing happened with Iraq.  Bush had decided long ago that he wanted war with Iraq.  Regardless of the evidence, regardless of the information gathered by allies, he plowed ahead with relentless arguments that we needed to invade.  WMD was the word of the day -- yet there were none, just as the UN had stated in its intelligence reports.  We don't hear about WMD anymore because we have the war he wanted.

And we will stay there until well after President Bush is gone because he wanted it that way.  He tells us we cannot bow to those who want us to "surrender" and who "bow to defeat."  We're going to win, he says.

We have already lost.

We lost this war the minute we invaded a country that had no plans to do us harm.  We lost the moment we threw out our moral compass and decided torture was okay.  We lost when we decided that killing thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians was worth whatever amorphous goal we were seeking in Iraq.  We lost when we decided that sinking a country into more than five years of chaos and misery was all right because we weren't going to be affected. We were going to be patriotic and go shopping.

There is nothing we can do to win this war because the war itself is a tremendous defeat for us.  It's something we did to ourselves -- Saddam Hussein could not have hurt us more, even if he'd had WMD.  

As Christians, we have to approach the world with the understanding that ALL people are our brothers and sisters.  God made them all, and when we look out only for our interests -- or worse yet, only for our economic interests -- we lose.  My belief that this war is a mixture of personal vendetta and economic interest for a lot of corporations owned by family friends only intensifies the depth of this loss.  Fought for the wrong reasons, it has permanently harmed millions of Iraqis who thought we were friends, and it has permanently harmed us.

Even if we can salvage the country of Iraq (as is now our moral obligation, at least to the degree that the Iraqi people ask it of us), even if we can salvage our own reputation and standing in the world (after a new president arrives, because no one will listen to Bush), it is impossible to call what we did a victory.  It's only surviving a disaster of our own making.

Now, President Bush wants to incite another conflict even after his own intelligence says it is not warranted.  Maybe he's like a gambler who keeps losing at the slots but keeps plunking his coins in because he just knows he's going to win big the next time.  He'll keep going at it until he's lost everything he's got.  Only, when you're President of the United States, there's a hell of a lot to lose.