Shoe Monument Honors Bush Attacker, Muntazer al-Zaidi

Journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi is being honored with a giant shoe monument, to immortalize his attack on President Bush.

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) -- An Iraqi town has unveiled a giant monument of a shoe in honor of the journalist who threw his footwear at former U.S. President George W. Bush.

The two-meter (six-foot) high statue, unveiled Thursday in former dictator Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, depicts a bronze-colored shoe, filled with a plastic shrub. "Muntazer: fasting until the sword breaks its fast with blood; silent until our mouths speak the truth," reads an inscription, in honor of journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who hurled his shoes at Bush and called him a "dog" at a news conference during the former president's final visit to Iraq.

Zaidi has been held in jail in Baghdad since the incident, facing charges of assaulting a visiting head of state.

Fatin Abdul Qader, head of an orphanage and children's organization in the town, said the one-and-a-half-ton monument by artist Laith al-Amiri was titled "statue of glory and generosity."

"This statue is the least expression of our appreciation for Muntazer al-Zaidi, because Iraqi hearts were comforted by his throw," she said.

When Democrats get wind of this, I bet they'll be sorry they didn't think to tuck funds into the so-called economic stimulus plan to erect a monument like the one in Tikrit here at home, perhaps in Hollywood.

Who knows? Maybe it was part of their plans for restoring the National Mall.

I'm sure Left-wing nutjobs will love the fact that a monument to honor the journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush was unveiled today in Iraq.

I'm sure it will be fodder for late night talk show comics.

That's sick.

I can understand the people of Saddam Hussein's hometown doing this. What I really can't relate to is all the Americans who enjoyed the sight of a man throwing shoes at the U.S. President.

How would those Lefties react if Barack Obama were treated that way when on foreign soil?

How would those Lefties react if conservatives replayed the video of the attack endlessly and mocked Obama, cheering on the assailant?

We know. They would be horrified.

Hypocrites.

It's the hypocrisy of Left-leaning America that really bugs me.

Read this caption accompanying an AP photo of the monument:

Girls stand next to a sculpture of a shoe that serves as a monument to the shoes thrown at then-US president George W. Bush in Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009. The shoe-hurling last month at Bush spawned a flood of Web quips, political satire and street rallies across the Arab world. Now, it's inspired a work of art. (AP Photo)

"The shoe-hurling last month at Bush spawned a flood of Web quips, political satire and street rallies across the Arab world. Now, it's inspired a work of art."

"A work of art"?