The Other Shoe

President Bush was greeted by one of the practitioners of the welcoming religion of peace in Baghdad yesterday. His press conference was disrupted by a journalist who threw his shoes at our President. The reporter is being questioned by the Iraqi President's guards, but thousands of Iraqis have rallied demanding the shoe tossers immediate release. He merits no consideration or special dispensation because of his status as a member of the fourth estate. Did the absolutely innocent Daniel Pearl get favorable treatment from the Allah akbar crowd because of his press card? The sabots were thrown at the US from conservative hawks who pushed for war, at Quaker pacifists, at crazed Code Pinkers, at our very ideals of tolerance, pluralism, and liberty. Almost everyone in the Muslim and Arab worlds despise us. The only place where there is consistent gratitude and respect for America and Americans is the Kurdish area of Iraq. Even Iraq's oil minister called for $80 a barrel oil to demonstrate the true desire of the Iraqi government to punish America for Iraq's liberation. The Mumbai murderers were reported to have demanded British and American passport holders come forward for what no doubt, if any had complied, would have meant their deaths. In the first Gulf War, President Bush's father liberated Kuwait and earned mostly the admiration of the al Sabah family, but that has not stopped Kuwatis from joining jihad against the West with two Kuwatis numbering amongst the suicide murderers of September 11, 2001. In Afghanistan, virtually any US-inflicted casualties are called "innocent civilians" often engaged in "wedding parties" by their treacherous, ungrateful Afghan mates. Harry Truman said if you want gratitude in Washington, "get a dog". America can no longer afford the cut-throat loyalty of our so-called Arab and Muslim "friends". In the Dar al-Salam, they think Americans are all dogs. But remember out here in the Dar al- Harb, we will never be your dhimmi. We have canine teeth, and we bite back.