Absurdity, Allegory and China

Again, I am going to make a plea to George W. Bush to finally do something constructive for Iraq after overseeing years of misguided and rabid destruction. In the NYT’s story, Tumult in Iraqi Parliament Over Shoe Hurling, we learn that the Iraqi Parliament has been thrown into utter chaos over the matter, and that the speaker of Parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, may have resigned when Bedlam came to yesterday’s session.

As Parliament began to discuss legislation on the withdrawal from Iraq of armed forces from nations other than the United States, a group of lawmakers demanded that the legislature instead take up the issue of the detained journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, 29. After his shoes narrowly missed Mr. Bush’s head at the news conference on Sunday, Mr. Zaidi was subdued by a fellow journalist and then beaten by members of the prime minister’s security detail, who hauled him out of the room. Mr. Zaidi’s cries could be heard from a nearby room.

Mr Bush has done his absolute best to collect an impressive list of “neg creds” with the Muslim world in the eight years that he has wandered the halls of the White House. Now here is an opportunity for him to attempt to balance it off. Forgiveness. What a unique idea. All the Big Books of Gods and Religions stress this sort of thing, even the one that Mr. Bush probably keeps next to his bed, even if it is questionable that he can actually read it. The forgiving of an enemy and the display of grace and compassion is central to the tenets of all great religions as we were reminded by religious scholar and 2008 TED Prize winner Karen Armstrong in her talk introducing a Charter of Comapassion. And in the spirit of the season, what a unique thought: forgive the man who threw a shoe at you.

While I am quite aware that this in an Iraqi problem, Mr Bush could get everyone off the hook – Mr Maliki, the Iraqi Parliament, and a good deal of the Muslim world – by suggesting that Mr Zaidi be shown clemency. What is so hard about that? Is he afraid that he’ll be shoed whenever he travels from Texas? My guess is that he’ll not be traveling far from home once he heads back to the Lone Star State for fear that any number of foreign powers might Pinochet him later, and I believe that the last thing he wants is to see himself behind a glass wall in The Hague.

And yes, forgiveness and compassion is that simple. And the argument that it is not is the same sort of argument that is used in every situation that screams “Impasse!” A word from the man who impressively dodged a high-and-inside fastshoe could help everyone here. Will he have the insight and the moral courage to actually do it? That’s a question only Mr. Bush can answer. He has a chance to write a footnote into the record that might show him as a person other than the one so much of the world has come to know and loathe.