By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

As an Arab-American I understand why Iraqi TV journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi threw his shoes at President George Bush.

Like many Arabs, Zaidi believes the war in Iraq started by Bush has ruined his country.

So when he cried, "This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," I had to at least recognize the passion and truth behind much of his feelings.

Zaidi succeeded in getting his viewpoint across to hundreds of millions around the world as his shoe throwing and comments were broadcast thousands of times in many Middle Eastern nations.

Zaidi also succeeded in embarrassing Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who used one of his hands to try to shield Bush from the second thrown shoe as the two men stood together for a routine press conference.

But as an Arab-American I also understand why many Americans are simply laughing at the incident -- as Bush mostly did, too.

Throwing shoes? At the president? How harmless. How lame.

And how damaging to many Americans' views of Arabs.

The most on-target comment I've seen on that topic came from Khalid al-Dakhil, a Saudi university lecturer in social politics. He thinks Bush committed war crimes with his nation's actions in Iraq.

Nevertheless, he said of the shoe-throwing incident:

"While understandable, it wasn't the most sophisticated and constructive way to express one's anger at Bush, especially coming from an educated Arab journalist. It reinforces the stereotype ideas in the Western world about Arabs."

But as Arab media see it, Zaidi and his shoes have helped create worldwide publicity for their view that Bush was a disaster for the Arabic world.

In the end that matters far more to these Arabs than any hurt feelings in the Bush camp or any snide comments by Americans about Zaidi's behavior.