with an opportunity to clean up the mistakes noted in Lithium Cola's FP article.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
A spokesman for Iraq's prime minister says the journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush has asked for a pardon.
Spokesman Yassin Majid says that in a letter sent Thursday to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki the journalist described his behavior as "an ugly act" and asked to be pardoned.
Majid says that Muntadhar al-Zeidi in the letter recalls the kindness the prime minister once showed him during an interview in 2005 and asked for al-Maliki to show him kindness once again.
Al-Zeidi, a correspondent for an Iraqi-owned television station based in Cairo, Egypt, could face two years imprisonment for insulting a foreign leader.
With respect to LC's FP article,
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Bush simply missed the entire significance of the event, chalking it up to "democracy" as al-Zeidi had the shit beat out of him in custody and sympathetic crowds took to the streets.
Now Bush has a chance to ask for clemency. He need not forgive or condone the act, merely recognize that things have been bad in Iraq and someone let their frustrations get the best of them for a moment, and accept the apology as far as HE is concerned. It would defuse the situation of having a person whose throw was appreciated by many Iraqis rotting in a jail cell.
Of course, realizing that this means he has to allow that Iraqis may actually reach a level of frustration with progress, he won't do it. Al-Zeidi has as much chance as Carla Fay Tucker.