He should only be allowed to wear crocs for the rest of his life.
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He should be given a medal, and showered with gifts.
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Honestly, he shouldn't be punished at all. Nobody was hurt and there was never any threat to the president. The goal was a political statement not to harm Bush.
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bush get a chance to throw back his shoes to the Iraqi journalist :)
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I believe he can get a maximum of 7 years in prison, but that seems unlikely since from what I am reading he is being held up in Iraq as a folk hero now. I think a year in prison is what he should get. It's scary to think that if he'd had a flat throwing knife hidden in his shoe to throw instead, he might have killed him. What a cesspool of a country
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What happens if you throw a pie at a politician in the US? A slap on the wrist. A stern lecture from a judge, a term of unsupervised probation, and maybe a few hundred dollars fine + court costs.

President Bush said that having the shoes thrown at him was the cost of democracy. That sounds forgiving to me. Yell at the guy, then turn him loose.
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I think it would be a bigger statement to not punish the individual at all. President Bush did a great job in explaining things after the event took place... the journalist was just making a statement to make people talk about him and it really worked. Instead of bringing more attention to the whole thing it should just be ignored and left to fade away.
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Canonization.
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"time man of the year" for doing what everyone else is thinking. note - throwing shoes is the ultimate insult in iraq so the idea of the shoes was symbolic as well.
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George Bush should be able to throw a shoe back.
Fair is fair.
Source(s):
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=100

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He should be shooed.
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SEVERAL FACTS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED-------------------------

The hurling of shoes at US President George W Bush on his farewell visit to Iraq strikes many in the Middle East as a fittingly furious comment on what they see as his calamitous legacy in the region.
Arab and Iranian TV stations have gleefully replayed the clip, sometimes in slow motion, of an Iraqi reporter calling Bush a “dog” and throwing his shoes at him - the Middle East’s tastiest insults - at a Baghdad news conference on Sunday.
The affront was a twisted echo of the triumphal moment for Bush when joyous Iraqis used their footwear to beat a statue of Saddam Hussain toppled by US invading troops in 2003.

1. “It indicates how much antagonism he’s been able to create in the whole region,” former Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said, adding that the incident was regrettable.

2. Bush had harmed America’s reputation and the friendship many had felt for it. “Despite past mistakes in its policies, there was always a redeeming factor. In this particular case, there doesn’t seem to have ever been a redeeming factor,” Maher said.
Muntazer al-Zaidi, who works for independent al-Baghdadiya television, has shot to local stardom for his attack on Bush and his cry: “This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog.”
He has also won instant fame abroad - a poem on an Islamist website praises him as “a hero with a lion’s heart” – although the Iraqi government slated his “barbaric and ignominious act”.
Zaidi’s crude public display of disdain for an incumbent US president hit a chord with many in the Middle East.

3.Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets Monday to demand the release of a reporter who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush in anger at U.S. policies, as support for the act and the journalist flowed in from across the Arab world.

The protests came as suicide bombers and gunmen targeted Iraqi police, plus U.S.-allied Sunni guards and civilians, in a series of attacks Monday that killed at least 17 people and wounded more than a dozen others, officials said.

4. Showing the sole of your shoe to someone in the Arab world is a sign of extreme disrespect, and throwing your shoes is even worse. Iraqis whacked a statue of Saddam Hussein with their shoes after U.S. Marines toppled it after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

5. As many as 98,000 Iraqi civilians may have been killed since the war began, according to Iraq Body Count, an independent organization that tracks media reports as well as official figures. The war has cost nearly $576 billion so far, according to the National Priorities Project.

WHAT DO YOU THINK SHOULD BE THE PUNISHMENT. IF SOMEBODY TRIES TO NAIL HIM , HE WILL BECOME A BIGGER HERO!!!!!!!!!!

HE SHOULD BE LET FREE...................
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I think that he should be banned from future press conferences. What he did was not really threatening to the President's health, but more of a expression of his opinions about the President.
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he should be tried for assault. That's it.
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I think there should only be a punishment if this were indeed an 'attack' on the president. As it is, one can view the shoe incident as this man practicing his freedom of expression. However, I feel there is a line where one's freedom of expression causes harm to another at which case action and appropriate consequences should ensue. Though the shoe did not harm the president, it could have hurt someone. So, as for a punishment, maybe he pays a small fine for this "attempted assault," but he needn't be detained. Or no punishment at all since the shoe didn't actually hurt anyone.
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If I were Bush I would pardon him in order to make him look foolish and diffuse at least some of the tension caused. I doubt it will happen though, Bush is no Pope John Paul.
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Make Him Iraq's President!
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Nothing serious, he did no harm. His way of showing his opinion wasn't the most tactful, but nothing more then a misdemeanor charge should be brought up against him.
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He should be charged appropriately, but no more than someone would be charged for throwing shoes at an "average Joe". (Gosh I hate that term after the recent election.) As per local laws, of course.

That's all that should happen to him. He shouldn't lose his job. I don't think that journalists should be required to remain completely neutral and objective. The reporting that matters is more personal these days. Individuals, real people, giving their version of the events. Like the recent attack in Mumbai, when we got accurate reports from Twitter and liveblogs. The tragedy spoke louder to us because of the personal angle. The people reporting to us were scared, confused, angry. I felt that my own reaction to it was more understanding and compassionate than when I see similar news on strict, traditional media.

This guy was angry, and he reacted outwardly. Like many of us do every day. If the target had been hit in the face, the injury would not have been serious. It seems to me like minor assault. It shouldn't matter who he threw them at. Besides, the attacked guy seemed to accept it and move on.
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A 1 cent fine.

And everyone who supports him should send him a brand new pair of shoes.
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No matter what our personal feelings are about the President, it was still an incredibly disrespectful (and potentially harmful) thing to do. He should have to issue a public apology and do some sort of community service, at the very least.
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He should be applauded for having such a good aim. I imagine the Iraqui government constantly thinks of the innocent men, women and children who have been killed in their country due to the invisible "weapons of mass destruction" that never existed. So sad.
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his shoes should not be returned back.
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He should be hanged for death or at least life sentence. Whatever you say that Bush did not do good or he is bad person, but after all he is President of USA and should be given all due respect.

Akash...
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2 years hard labour working at a shoe repairers.
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I think a small fine, and perhaps a short prison sentence (a couple of weeks tops) would be reasonable. This isn't a simple freedom of expression issue. If he had just made a verbal outburst, that would be one thing. But throwing things at a speaker (even if the worst conceivable injury would have been a bruise on the head) is a different matter entirely.

Plus, as we all know, a shoe really hurts! Who throws a shoe!?!
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If Iraq is smart, only a small fine. It's definitely a bad idea to let him go without punishment, but if they put him in jail, the people would figuratively bulldoze the Iraqi president.
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