Well one way is to get drunk behind the wheel and mow down some innocent pedestrian down killing them instantly and creating lifelong suffering to their family. Another way is to throw a shoe at the 41st president of America and not even hit the target.
Well this is what has happened to an Iraq journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi. He used his privilege as a journalist and then in front of millions worldwide, threw his shoe at the President making him a hero in Iraq. Today he has been sentenced to 3 years behind bars, something that here in the UK, we seem to reserve for more serious crimes.
A fair agreement would suggest that it is a great insult in Iraq to throw shoes at anyone that may result in up to 15 years behind bars and even though this journalist and pretty much everyone in the western world may think his was harsh it certainly isn’t 15 years and you can’t help thinking he would be out in 1 year.
There is also a security issue here, with shoes being used to hide bombs in planes, it was possible this amusing incident could have been more serious and locking this person up, hopefully is a message that shoe throwing is just a gimmick, but could be a very serious one, if security had thought it was a bomb and decided to shoot the journalist instead.
With 2 soldiers being shot this weekend and then 48 hours later a policeman too, Gordon Brown has some challenges to convince those involved that they should not react and risk slowing down the peace process. What is clear from the public is that they do not want to go back to how things were say 15 years ago, clearly they enjoy peaceful times. It was interesting how Gordon brown called them murderers rather than terrorists, the message seems stronger somehow and it was always easy for a terrorist to say they were an army at war.
To send the army in world send the wrong message to those who may still not have any trust, but are the police correctly trained to deal with such issues, especially with automatic weapons. Of course this was what the real IRA (who claimed responsibility for the soldiers’ shootings) wanted. Let’s get people thinking the troubles are not over and force them to bring back the troops or heavy handed checkpoints and the rest must ne the aim of the game. It would not take long before the news would be focussing on the security measures rather than why they were implemented in the first place.
On saying this, the murders are in a minority. It is unlikely there will be many who will put them up in safe houses, or protect them should their identity before apparent. Let’s hope it is a temporary blip and these people are captured and prosecuted. They will then see who their friends are
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