The press
release of the day from everyone's favorite
break-into-congressional-hearings-and-scream-to-end-the-war
group:
In solidarity with an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at
George W. Bush at a Baghdad press conference Sunday, peace
activists will gather outside the White House with bags of
shoes representing Iraqis and U.S. soldiers who have died since
the Bush Administration's illegal invasion of Iraq.
They aim to show support for Iraqi journalist Muntader
al-Zaidi, who hurled his shoes at President Bush while he spoke
at the conference on his "surprise" visit to discuss the war.
Al-Zaidi is currently being held by Iraqi police and questioned
on his actions. The peace activists are calling on the Iraqi
government to release al-Zaidi without charges and have set up
a fund to support him and his family."
"It's outrageous that al-Zaidi could get two years in prison
for insulting George Bush, when Bush is directly responsible
for the deaths of 1.5 million Iraqis and 4,200 U.S. troops, and
5 million displaced Iraqis," says Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK.
"The one who should be in jail is George Bush, and he should be
charged with war crimes."
Anti-war activists were rather fond of shoes even before Mr
al-Zaidi's act of incredible courage and
irregular-object-hurling. Walk by the left-wing cafe Busboys and
Poets in Washington and you can still see a massive glass
container of baby shoes that Code Pink collected to symbolize all
the kids "murdered by the Bush regime" in Iraq. Regular Americans
might not share their thrill in an act of pointless violence
against an outgoing president. But when's the last time
they paid attention to Code Pink?
