His Due

Little wonder there's a deep simmering resentment and hatred for the presence of the very man whose decision-making is responsible for the loss of tens of thousands of Iraqi lives. Who, furthermore, through a breach of good judgement as head of state of the most formidably powerful nation on the planet, initiated an occupation of a foreign land, unleashing a torrent of unappeasable sectarian hatred causing further loss of innocent lives.

Would he then not understand the generous level of distrust and hatred his presence would evoke in the population? Did he think the gravitas of his position as President of the United States - albeit outgoing on a clanking note - would dictate that respect be demonstrated, despite social provocation at his presence? Well, it isn't easy being a power-figure, one who despite good intentions routinely made decisions that brought havoc to the world.

True, he was himself provoked, and it was incumbent upon him to respond, decisively and with the full strength of his country's determination to apprehend the activities of global death-dealers. Trouble was, he was injudicious enough not to understand where to begin and when to stop. He recognized the validity of his vision of spreading the good of democracy to a region incapable of owning it.

Above all, he resorted to obeying his inner urge to control, expressing an arrogant need to impose a solution that proved inadequate to the situation at hand. In the process unleashing a monster that all the king's horses and all the king's men could no longer manage. Making him, unmistakably, responsible for the untimely and gruesome deaths of countless people, his own, and others.

Still, there he was, on the podium alongside his Iraqi political counterpart, a figure to be respected for the position he represented. Which did not faze or stop a young reporter, Muntader al-Zeidi from passionately and rudely assaulting a guest in his country by flinging his shoes violently at the head of the head of the United States.

President Bush nimbly and with great awareness inclined his targeted head toward the horizontal; what presence of mind! Twice averting being slammed by the uber-insulting soles of the reporter's shoes. Which footwear should have been confiscated, and the reporter sent hobbling back to his Al-Baghdadia television station. Instead, while President Bush chuckled good-naturedly, Mr. al-Zeidi was bundled off by security guards into prison.

And while the government of Iraq expresses its outrage at the unmitigated insult to that great statesman (and unrealized stand-up comic), President Bush, supporters of the grave insult all across the Middle East chant for the young man's release, nominating him for an award of bravery.

Thanks be to God.