Those wacky Iraqis...
My best mate during the Iraq war was the son of Iraqi refugees who'd fled the country after opposing Saddam. He was an atheist, but still felt the need to defend Islam's portrayal in the West, and it was good for me, as a 15 year old getting to grips with politics, to get an Iraqi take on the war (he even predicted with unerring accuracy the chaos into which the country would descend).

One particular thing I remember was after the 'iconic' felling of the statue of Saddam and people beating it with shoes he told me he could tell it was massively faked or staged, or that the people had simply been paid to do it. I asked him how he knew and he smiled and said, "Oh don't worry, it's not some weird bit of sharia law that you can't take your shoes off in the street or anything, it's just, why the fuck would any sane person want to hit a statue with a shoe?"

Wow, just looked it up on youtube and he was absolutely right, don't believe everything you see kids. youtube.com/watch?v=GMgEc9Qds8M
(jabberwocky, Tue 15 Jul 2008, 20:21, 2 replies)

Wait
are you telling me people thought it ironic?
I swear it was just what it was... a statue being pulled down?
(Frozen_Banana Shaved against the grain; thoroughly unrewarding., Tue 15 Jul 2008, 23:36, closed)

Iconic / Ironic
Did you misread a word?
(Tomble Underground, overground, Tombling free., Wed 16 Jul 2008, 15:19, closed)