Much has been made about the now infamous “shoe throwing incident” with President Bush in Baghdad last Sunday. Some have said that the size tens were precisely what Bush deserved. Some have labeled the incident a geo-political embarrassment. Still others have questioned how the incident could have taken place with security around the President of the United States as tight as it is.
Fareed Zakaria, on the other hand, sees the incident as an indication of the slow and painful, but distinctive forward movement of Iraq as a free and open nation. In a recent interview with CNN, Zakaria stated,
CNN: Do you think the shoe-throwing incident shows that Iraq is becoming an open society?
Fareed Zakaria: Yes, and President Bush was right that it represents a huge advance in freedom in the Middle East. There is quite simply no other Arab country in which that scene could have taken place.
And Iraq has, in other ways, become a reasonably open and democratic society — though still a long way from a liberal democracy as we would define it.
CNN: So not a big deal — just fodder for late-night comics?
Zakaria: Not quite — what the shoe-throwing incident also reminded us of — and this is something that Americans often forget — is that whatever the gains in Iraq recently — and they are undeniable and real — the costs for Iraqis have been huge.
We focus on the costs to America — hundreds of billions of dollars spent, more than four thousand American lives lost there.
But the costs to the Iraqis have been staggering
2.5 million Iraqis — 10 percent of the population — have left the country, and only a few are trickling back. Another 2 million have been displaced from their homes. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and wounded — and that may be underreported.
Maybe in the long run, if Iraq becomes a more decent society, these costs will fade into memory and the benefits will endure. But for now, as Muntadhar al-Zaidi’s actions showed — it is the costs that remain front and center in the Iraq consciousness.
With approval ratings for the war in Iraq at all time lows, it is unlikely that the costs will fade from any memories, US or Iraqi, any times soon. But as CNN personality and blogger Jack Cafferty noted, further backing Zakaria and Bush’s perspectives,
And whether you agree with the war in Iraq or not, it probably saved this man’s life. If he had thrown his shoes while Saddam was in power he likely would have been executed on the spot.