Thursday 25 September 2003

Indignant Arabs Say Bush Must Fix Iraq Mess Solo

I particularly like the part about the Egyptian lady wanting to beat Mr. Bush with her shoe. For the uninitiated hitting someone with your shoe in an Arab country is a grave insult.

Bush rejected any speedy transfer of power to Iraqis in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday and urged other nations to share the burdens of the postwar occupation and reconstruction of the country.

"He should admit that he's wrong because he killed a lot of people and made them homeless. He deserves a good beating with my shoes," said Egyptian cleaning lady Raga Mohamed. "He can't expect to destroy a country and then ask the world to help him."

Over half a year after Bush bypassed the United Nations (news - web sites) to launch the war that ousted Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), a guerrilla war against the U.S. occupation is inflicting mounting casualties and Iraqis complain basic services and security are inadequate.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas which has carried out suicide bombings in Israel during a three-year-old uprising against Israeli occupation, accused Bush of declaring a "war on Islam under the pretext of terrorism."

"But he will be defeated, in Afghanistan (news - web sites), in Iraq, in Palestine and in all the Muslim land," he said in Gaza.

Egyptian state television delayed its evening news for a live feed of Bush's U.N. speech with Arabic dubbing.

But many Egyptians were unimpressed.

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