(Blog) Iraqi officials playing the Ethiopia "pardon" game on shoe-thrower

Opinion/By Blogger Oromummaa

According to the Iraqi prime minister,  the shoe-throwing journalist who missed George Bush is apologizing and seeking "pardon" for his sins. Well, this looks like a drama right out of Ethiopian prison cells. It is likely that the Iraqi journalist al-Zaidi was pressured by the Iraqi "government" to apologize to George bush. When he comes of out of prison, the journalist owes an apology to the rest of the world for not hitting Bush on target with the shoe! How do you miss from just 2 meters away?

Anyway, the "pardon" propaganda by the iraqi government does not fool anyone. It was only a few months ago that another dictator Meles zenawi played the same "pardon" game on opposition party leaders he imprisoned after his security forces killed 200 civilians in Ethiopia's capital. The so-called apology letter writen by the Oromo woman birtuqan mideksa and a bunch of other ethiopian opposition leaders was fake and didn't hide the fact that hundreds of civilians have died in Ethiopia and the dictatorship continues. The so-called apology in Iraq also can not hide the fact that over 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died since the invasion by Bush and millions more iraqis have become refugees. Living in the urban, it is highly likely that the journalist al-zaidi lost atleast one close family member or a relative or a close friend. In this case, it is hard to blame the journalist for throwing a shoe at bush.

Bush should be thankful that the journalist didn't throw anything else! If you are this journalist and your close relative or friend was killed because of bush's bloody war, what becomes a definition of peaceful show of dissident? Sitting on a chair and interviewing Bush? the leader who allowed the killing of your relative or friends, as if he is another typical person?

Most of us from the horn of Africa will not have the luxury of throwing a shoe at Zenawi, a leader who has killed many Oromos on allegation of being members of the OLF. Let alone in Mogadishu (which is like Meles zenawi's Baghdad), Meles will not even dare to relax in Finfinne, the seat of his government where he is always surrounded by bullet proof glasses indoors and by TPLF bodyguards outdoors (who probably have bullet proof foreheads). Here is a shoe-throwing video game for anyone from Ethiopia, eritrea or somalia who is looking to let go of frustration on zenawi. http://www.sockandawe.com/  
Afterall, if it wasn't for the Bush adminstration, zenawi would still not be around in the horn of Africa.

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