couple o' things...
1) when an arab hits you with the bottom of his shoe, he's basically saying "you're as low as the dirt I walk upon" or something like that -- so the shoe thing is really an attempt to insult, not injure;
2) the rush limbaugh-esque line that this 'shows how great of a job we've done there because look how free they are now' is abject nonsense....i mean, does anybody imagine that someone doing such a thing, or
threatening from afar, in the US wouldn't be subject to some pretty stiff punishment? The guy would have been dealt with most severely by Hussein, and it's likely he'll have a really rough go of things with Al Maliki as well....maybe not as swift or as severe, but a different shade of gray and not an altogether different color.