Middle East Features
The other shoe drops: Bush gets Afghan medal (News Feature)
By Farhad Peikar Dec 15, 2008, 11:24 GMT
Kabul - US President George W Bush was awarded the most prestigious medal by his Afghan counterpart in Kabul, one day after he ducked a pair of shoes launched at him by an Iraqi journalist in Baghdad.
Bush made a farewell trip to Iraq Sunday to support the recently signed US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, which paves the way for the transfer of full sovereignty to Iraq and the departure of US troops by 2011.
During a joint news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, an Iraqi television reporter stood up and hurled both of his shoes at the unsuspecting Bush, shouting, 'This is the farewell kiss, you dog.' Bush dodged the shoes and tried to stay calm.
On Monday, Bush flew to Kabul and received a different welcome.
'In a special ceremony at the presidential palace, President (Hamid) Karzai presented the Ghazi Amanullah Khan Medal to President George W Bush for his service in his assistance and cooperation to the people of Afghanistan,' Karzai's office said in a statement.
The medal is the country's highest award. Ghazi Ammanullah Khan served as Afghanistan's king from 1919-29 and led the country to independence from the erstwhile British Empire.
US troops supported by Western allies invaded both Iraq and Afghanistan during Bush's eight years as president. The invasions liberated them from a dictator and a radical Taliban regime, but soon both Islamic states were plunged into a bloody war between insurgents and US forces.
'Afghans turned against the foreign forces led by US troops in Afghanistan after the US government focus was shifted to Iraq war and Afghanistan was left to the corrupt officials,' said Waheed Muzhda, a political analyst and former foreign ministry official during the Taliban regime.
'Like Shiite and Kurds (in Iraq), there are also some circles in Afghanistan that support Bush and his administration and are happy with them,' Muzhda said. 'But the vast majority of Afghan people know Bush as someone who committed unforgivable crimes in Afghanistan and other places.'
Abdul Jabar, 36, a pushcart vendor in Kabul city, said the Bush administration put Afghanistan in a situation where 'we cannot tell the foreign forces to leave our country, because we will once again be attacked by our neighbours, and if we ask them to stay, the same bloodshed will continue.'
Jabar, who heard about the Iraqi journalist's action from a local radio channel, said, 'If we don't throw our shoes at him, it does not mean civilians and innocent people were not killed here, but it means that our Afghan culture does not allow us to mistreat our guests.'
Taliban militants have steadily gained power in the past two years since their ouster in late 2001, and extended their writ over ever larger swathes of the country.
In several districts in southern and eastern regions, the Taliban have created a parallel government and have installed their own judicial and administrative authorities.
Administrative corruption in Karzai's government and civilian casualties caused during the international forces' operations against insurgents have also increased the public support for the Taliban.
Wary of losing the war to the insurgents, the US government has recently announced to top its around 32,000 forces in the country with additional 20,000 US troops to contain the insurgency. There are nearly 70,000 foreign troops from some 41 nations in Afghanistan.
Despite warnings by analysts of growing anti-US, or anti-Westerner sentiments in the country, Afghanistan on Monday received the US delegations with warms welcomes.
'We are honored to the profoundest depth of our hearts to have His Excellency President Bush with us here today,' Karzai said in a joint press appearance with the US leader.
Concerned that the press would not show enough respect to the outgoing US leader, Afghan officials told reporters to address Bush as 'His Excellency,' a title Karzai himself repeated at least three times during the press conference.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
you are in for the ass eating of your life when sp4 reads what you wrote.
i pity your ass when the head asshole gets done chewing.
'i pity your ass when the head asshole gets done chewing.'
What are you talking about? SP4 has never chewed my ass. He is just a guy (a Bush groupie to be precise) trying to make a point and not doing a very good job at it.
we all know sp4 is a commie prick and he should be put down like the dog he is.
Just sorry that one of the shoes didn't nail the little prick....
This reporter derserves the Worlwide Medal of Honor....
The horror of stupidity...
Once again, Dubya has demonstrated his profound stupidity and his amazingly skewered sense of ego by going to Iraq and stirring things up, just for the sake of his 'legacy'.
The National Cretin could have quietly stayed holed up in the White House waiting for the much anticipated end of his presidency.
But nooooooooo! He had to go and show his moronic pill in the one place where he's even more hated than in the US. He had to go and create a hero for them. How much did this ill advised little trip cost the taxpayers, anyway? How many US servicemen will be killed or wounded as a direct and indirect result of Bush's Folly?
That stupid blivet has once again shown he's determined to be a major disaster to the very end!
Spitfire
Are we comfortable with the response time of our Secret Service? This idiot was able to throw not one but TWO shoes at the president before anyone got to him! I wish one of the bodyguards would have shot this guy in the face. You have the right to express yourself and we believe everyone should have that right, but to do so violently (even if it is comical) should have some kind of repercussions.
I couldn't have said it better!
He threw his shoes.
Shoe no.1 'This is a farewell kiss, you dog,'
Shoe no.2 'This is from all the widows, all the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.'
The media said that he blamed bush for the (thousands of iraqis killed)
it is fact, look up scientific surveys of iraq population and death rates that about 2 million more people have died since the invasion and occupation than the previous average of iraq over the same amount of time, also you have about 8 million under absolute poverty and 4 million refugess, in a country of about 27 million pre invasion population!
The american and british media are criminal organisations who are working to brainwash their own people!
'The american and british media are criminal organisations who are working to brainwash their own people!'
Absolutely not. That information is freely available in many places. Sure, the exact numbers are disputed, but the trends are indisputable.
What is happening is this:
The typical U.S. citizen (I won't speak for typical U.K. citizen) brainwashes their own mind. They are groupies that cling onto the last fragment of the illusion that they exist in a shining democracy led by a morally relevant leader of the free world. The fact is: They are no more special then the their nemisis: The dirty savage muslim (in their words/mind) who they despise and mass kill.
The typical U.S. citizen freely brainwashes themselves. No one need do it for them. I think they do it instinctively so they don't explode when their fantasy shatters.
... you have problems speaking for yourself, let alone 300 million people.
Now, how's that dissertation coming on how Bush broke the Bank fo England...or how you killed Jimmy Hoffa, wrestled the Loch Ness monster, etc? We're all waiting.
There comes a shoe!! And another one.........................
That's how the world sees the United States and its president:
Like a joke.
To Spitfire, Yrag AND the wing nut lance---
Your facts/ numbers are incredibly skewed.....and, unfortunately, it's obvious, you've read way so much NBC, ABC, and CBS and CNN biased bull--it
that you cannot possibly add any pertinent facts to this debate. The numbers you gave on Iraq deaths blamed on The US LIBERATION of Iraq are totally an aberration.
Puh-leeese!
I don't need 'NBC, ABC, and CBS and CNN biased bull' (hmmm, everyone but Fux?) to know that The Dipstick is the modern political equivalent of Typhoid Mary!
I just need to be informed. That's enough... Don't try to put a Palinspin on Bush, he's done way too much. He's nonredeemable.
All he can do now is hire a bunch of preachers to have a prayer session with him in an attempt to cuddle favor from all the religious idiots out there...
Spitfire
page: 1
lanceDec 15th, 2008 - 13:47:31
This is a good example of the way the U.S. government works:
They mass kill people and then install the best government that their money can buy.
And then that government turns around and gives the U.S. trinkets.
Who says you can't buy and kill your way to the top.
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