The journalist that threw his shoes at the President the other day has been detained, as you could probably surmise or read else where on the internet. Most Iraqis disagree with this action.
Most that disagree call this man a hero for representing the views of so many in Iraq on such a public stage.
Some say that this was a journalist exercising "freedom of expression." Others go with "freedom of speech" (although hurling a shoe goes beyond speech) or "freedom of the press."
To voice their dissenting views, crowds have taken to the streets of several Iraqi cities for the last few days, exercising their "freedom to assemble," and quite honestly, they are thrilled that they are permitted to assemble at all.
Here soon they are going to get the opportunity to freely vote for which ever candidate they want for whatever reason they want. Their little girls are free to go to school.
Isn't it ironic that the very man that made them free to do all those things is the target of their shoe?
When I made this point with a few Iraqi leaders here where I work, they tell me that Iraqi's can't live in a democracy. They need the heavy fist of a dictator.
The word Islam means to submit or to obey, implying that they must have someone to obey or submit to. This makes a dictatorship feel natural and a democracy, ripe with freedoms, feel like chaos.
What we consider inalienable rights, they willfully give up for a sense of direction or order. Shouldn't they be free to do so?
Semper Fi,
m
2 comments:
Great, GREAT blog!!!!!!! You've worded it in a very understandable way.
Mom
Sadly, if they chose dictatorship, then anyone else in the country with another opinion and anyone who is born into that society is not given any freedom. If they get their freedom to make that decision, all other people lose theirs!
Of course, as long as their dictatorship doesn't pose a threat to us or their neighbors, I assume we will leave them well enough alone.
God bless you for your service, Gunny.
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