Recently, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi made headlines when he took off his shoes and threw them at President George W Bush, in order to show his displeasure at the US president's policies.

It made me wonder if Muntadhar al-Zaidi misses the glory days of that most beloved of benevolent peacemongers, Saddam Hussein. It also made me think about throwing some shoes of my own.

Solely in terms of numbers: Roughly one million Iraqis died under Saddam's reign, averaging 50,000 deaths a year.

Under the American ‘oppressors’, only an average of 6800 deaths occured a year - and the rate decreases daily.

Most of the deaths were caused not by US troops nor by Iraqi soldiers, but by foreign terrorists who felt that the suffering or ordinary Iraqis were a small price to pay for embarrassing the 'crusaders'. Can someone please throw some shoes at Al-Qaeda now?

And may I remind you that under the Bill Clinton-era embargo, the United Nations reported that more than one million Iraqis had died from nine years of deprivation (more than 100,000 a year) - with 567,000 of them children under the age of five.

Muntadhar could therefore consider Clinton twice the murderer as Saddam, and 14 times the murderer as Bush.

Yet I don't see Muntadhar throwing shoes at Clinton. Maybe he's just waiting for Baghdad to book a seminar where Clinton will give one of his expensive talks.

Thanks to the evil Bush's imperialistic abuse of international law, South Africa and even the city of Chicago have a higher violent crime rate for their population than Iraq does. Shoes ought to be thrown at the leaders of those places.

Oil production has also increased far beyond the post-Gulf War period, with profits going to the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure. May I remind you that any oil that was pumped out under Saddam’s rule went not to the common Iraqis, but straight into Saddam's pockets - or those of corrupt UN officials involved in the Oil-For-Food scandal. Shoes ought to be thrown at them instead.

I suggest that Malaysian media seriously consider sending an entourage of reporters to Iraq to interview the local people and compose a photo essay. It won't be all that dangeroues. After all, western reporters can now walk around Baghdad without body armour or armed escort.

Just like all the smiling men, women and children can now go to the market, enjoy amusement park rides (yes, they have them in Iraq!) and play soccer without having to fear a visit from Saddam's enforcers or roving gangs of terrorists.

Muntadhar may hate Bush, but it looks like someone forgot to tell the millions of liberated pro-Bush Iraqis that he is a heartless mass murderer who deserves our vilification.