"The time has come, the Walrus said,
To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing wax--
Of cabbages--and kings"...Lewis Carroll

These kleptocrats throw themselves at the feet
of Western plutocracies: they spurn

the real source of power - their own people - 
seeking clientage under Western boots.

Lesser rogues gravitate to bigger ones: 
this is the law of global hegemony.

This tendency emerges again and again
as long as its victims stay hidebound.

These lesser rogues - Zardari, Karzai,
Abdullah, Mubarak, Abbas - 

will get their marching orders from DC,
hold down their own people for a fee,

unless the people, every one of them,
pick up their shoes, sandals, chappals

(any old footwear will do),
and point them at these scoundrels, 

a shot across the bow of their kleptocracies.
If this does not work (and it might not),

ask the shoe-throwing Iraqi.
He knew better what to do with a shoe. 

M. Shahid Alam teaches economics at Northeastern University. He is author of Israeli Exceptionalism: The Detabilizing Logic of Zionism (Palgrave Macmillan, November 2009). He may be reached at alqalam02760 [AT] yahoo.com