Tortured

Last week, Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi famously threw his shoes at US President George Bush during a press conference, underlining the failure of the Bush Presidency and its Iraq project. Within a day he had reportedly apologised, writing a grovelling letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki begging forgiveness for his "big, ugly act" and claiming a "terrorist" had invited him to do it. Now it turns out that apology was tortured out of him:

Uday al-Zaidi said his brother told him the letter was written against his will because he was subjected to torture, including being doused with cold water while naked.

"He told me that he has no regret because of what he did and that he would do it again," Uday said. "The thing that makes you cry and laugh at the same time is that when the prime minister said that my brother was not tortured and will not be tortured, he was under severe torture by security authorities."

And this is Bush's model for the Middle East he killed a million people to create: a country where people are tortured for insulting the state or foreign allies - just like under Saddam.

Tell me - was it really worth killing a million people simply to change the name in which torture is committed? I don't think so.