“This is from the widows”

IN THE days after an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at George W. Bush during a press conference, thousands of people took to the streets in Iraq to demand the release of the man who became an instant hero.

Muntader al-Zaidi, a 28-year-old journalist for Al Baghdadia television station, remained in detention facing a possible seven-year prison sentence. But his act of defiance inspired people around the world, and especially within Iraq. In Baghdad, protesters marched with shoes atop signs expressing their support for Zaidi, and in Najaf, some protesters threw shoes at a passing U.S. military patrol.

The editorial board of Al Baghdadia, an independent news station based in Cairo, Egypt, issued a statement calling on Iraq's government to free their journalist:

Any action taken against Muntader will remind us of the actions and behaviors taken by the reign of the dictator and the violence, the random arrests, the mass graves and confiscations of freedom from the people. Al Baghdadia television demands that the Iraqi authorities immediately release their stringer Muntader, in line with the democracy and freedom of expression that the American authorities promised the Iraqi people.

The Iraqi security force responsible for safeguarding the press conference also briefly detained two other Iraqi journalists, hauling them away because one called Zaidi's stand "courageous."

In Iraqi culture, striking someone with a shoe is a grave insult. Now, nearly six years after images of Iraqis hitting statues of Saddam Hussein with their shoes were beamed around the world, Bush had to dodge shoes in person. This was seen by many in the Arab world as a fitting farewell to a despised political figure.

Zaidi reported on the U.S. bombing of Sadr City on the outskirts of Baghdad earlier this year and, according to friends, had been "emotionally influenced" by the devastation he witnessed. But Iraqi security forces were reportedly trying to determine if he had been under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the incident--as if only intoxication could explain Zaidi's anger at Bush.

ZAIDI BECAME a global icon on December 14 when he stood up about 12 feet in front of Bush and hurled a shoe at him, shouting in Arabic, "This is a gift from the Iraqis, this is the farewell kiss, you dog!"

The incident occurred at a joint press conference by Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad to highlight the recently negotiated status of forces agreement that will govern U.S. troop presence in Iraq in the coming years.

After Bush ducked the first shoe, Zaidi threw his other shoe and shouted, "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!" Security guards then surrounded Zaidi, took him outside and beat him. His screams were audible in the room where Bush, Maliki and the rest of the journalists remained.

Bush tried to downplay the significance of the incident. "So what if a guy threw a shoe at me?" he said. "It's like going to a political rally and having people yell at you. It's like driving down the street and having people not gesturing with all five fingers...But that's what happens in free societies, where people try to draw attention to themselves."

Bush's comments only underscore how out of touch he--and the rest of his administration--are with the deep wells of anger among Iraqis at the atrocities committed by the U.S. military.

"The flying shoe speaks more for Arab public opinion than all the despots/puppets that Bush meets with during his travels in the Middle East," said Asad Abu Khalil, a professor at California's Stanislaus University and author of a blog called the Angry Arab News Service.

Just before Zaidi rose to throw his shoes at him, Bush was talking with his usual disregard for reality about the great strides towards peace, freedom and democracy being made in Iraq:

Today, violence is down dramatically. Al-Qaeda is driven from its safe havens. Sunnis, Shia and Kurds are sitting together at the same table to peacefully chart the future of this country. There is hope in the eyes of Iraq's young. This is a future of what we've been fighting for--a strong and capable democratic Iraq that will be a force for freedom and a force for peace in the heart of the Middle East, a country that will serve as a source for stability in a volatile region.

At the conclusion of Bush's trip, Middle East expert Juan Cole, appearing on PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer, gave a withering rebuttal to Bush's happy talk:

Baghdad has been ethnically cleansed, the majority of it Sunni Arabs. There are lively fights between Arabs and Kurds in the north. Prime Minister al-Maliki is being accused by the Kurds of developing a militia among Arab tribes loyal to the prime minister that has come into conflict with the Kurds.

Social peace is very far away. Four hundred attacks a month, still several hundred civilians killed every month. Three bombings in Baghdad, wounding nearly 20 people, on the very day that Bush was in Baghdad. In comparison to the almost apocalyptic violence of a year-and-a-half ago, sure, there is improvement in some of the statistics. But if this were any other country in the world, it would be considered a very serious crisis.

IRAQIS ARE also fuming over recent backsliding by Bush and Maliki over the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

Maliki earned a great deal of prestige for his government after he forced concessions from the U.S. before signing a status of forces agreement that requires the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq's population centers by July of next year and the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.

But in the last week, high-level Iraqi and American officials expressed their intention to alter or reinterpret the terms of the agreement in order to allow U.S. troops to remain far longer. The terms of the agreement can be modified by mutual agreement of both sides at any point.

In mid-December, Ali al-Dabbagh, Maliki's top spokesperson, announced during a trip to Washington that "it might be 10 years" before U.S. troops leave Iraq, saying the Americans had to stay in order to continue training Iraqi troops.

His statement renewed rancor over the accord in Iraq. "We expected something odd," said Alaa Maki, whose Sunni Muslim political bloc succeeded in forcing the government to get approval for the agreement from voters in a national referendum. "That is the reason we pushed for the referendum."

Meanwhile, Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. field commander in Iraq, said that American forces will continue to reside indefinitely in dozens of small bases in Iraqi cities, despite the requirement in the status of forces agreement that they leave by July.

Odierno explained to reporters that the U.S. chain of command considers these troops to be "training personnel," and therefore not subject to the withdrawal provision in the agreement, which Odierno said was applicable to combat troops only. Thousands of U.S. troops who play a central role in the U.S. war effort are stationed in these bases across Iraq--there are more than a dozen in Baghdad alone.

"The comments were significant because they represent the first official U.S. acknowledgment that the security pact's withdrawal language may not be as definitive as many Iraqi and American officials had first indicated," the Wall Street Journal reported.

As the U.S. signals its intent to continue its occupation of Iraq, building a powerful antiwar movement in the U.S. is essential so that Zaidi and others opposed to the U.S. presence in their country will one day have a chance at real self-determination.