Man Throws Shoes at Pres. Bush

["MVP"]

By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP

BAGHDAD (Dec. 14) - On an Iraq trip shrouded in secrecy and marred by dissent, President George W. Bush on Sunday hailed progress in the war that defines his presidency and got a size-10 reminder of his unpopularity when a man hurled two shoes at him during a news conference.

"This is a farewell kiss, you dog!" shouted the protester in Arabic, later identified as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt.

Bush ducked both shoes as they whizzed past his head and landed with a thud against the wall behind him.

"It was a size 10," Bush joked later.

The U.S. president visited the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the war off to his successor, Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it. The president wanted to highlight a drop in violence in a nation still riven by ethnic strife and to celebrate a recent U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

"The war is not over," Bush said, adding that "it is decisively on it's way to being won."

In many ways, the unannounced trip was a victory lap without a clear victory. Nearly 150,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq fighting a war that is intensely disliked across the globe. More than 4,209 members of the U.S. military have died in the conflict, which has cost U.S. taxpayers $576 billion since it began five years and nine months ago.

Polls show most Americans believe the U.S. erred in invading Iraq in 2003. Bush ordered the nation into war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq while citing intelligence claiming the Mideast nation harbored weapons of mass destruction. The weapons were never found, the intelligence was discredited, Bush's credibility with U.S. voters plummeted and Saddam was captured and executed.

"There is still more work to be done," Bush said after his meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

It was at that point the journalist stood up and threw a shoe from about 20 feet away. Bush ducked, and it narrowly missed his head. The second shoe came quickly, and Bush ducked again while several Iraqis grabbed the man and dragged him to the floor.

In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of contempt. Iraqis whacked a statue of Saddam with their shoes after U.S. marines toppled it to the ground following the 2003 invasion.

White House press secretary Dana Perino suffered an eye injury in the news conference melee. Bush brushed off the incident, comparing it to political protests at home.

"So what if I guy threw his shoe at me?" he said.

Al-Maliki, who spoke before the incident, praised postwar progress: "Today, Iraq is moving forward in every field."

After the news conference, the president took a 15-minute helicopter ride through dark skies over Baghdad to Camp Victory. Telling hundreds of troops he was "heading into retirement," Bush blamed Saddam for the 2003 invasion and said, "America is safer and more secure" than it was before the war.

For Bush, the war is the issue around which both he and the country defined his two terms in office. He saw the invasion and continuing fight as a necessary action to protect Americans and fight terrorism. Though his decision won support at first, the public now has largely decided that the U.S. needs to get out of Iraq.

Air Force One, the president's distinctive powder blue-and-white jetliner, landed at Baghdad International Airport in the afternoon local time after a secretive Saturday night departure from Washington. In a sign of security gains in this war zone, Bush received a formal arrival ceremony — a flourish absent in his three earlier trips.

Bush soon began a rapid-fire series of meetings with top Iraqi leaders.

He met first with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the country's two vice presidents, Tariq al-Hashemi and Adel Abdul-Mahdi, at the ornate, marble-floored Salam Palace along the shores of the Tigris River.

Later, Bush's motorcade pulled out the heavily fortified Green Zone and crossed over the Tigris so he could meet al-Maliki at the prime minister's palace. A huge orange moon hung low over the horizon as Bush's was ferried quickly through the city.

The two leaders signed ceremonial copy of the security agreement.

The Bush administration and even White House critics credit last year's military buildup with the security gains in Iraq. Last month, attacks fell to the lowest monthly level since the war began in 2003.

Still, it's unclear what will happen when the U.S. troops leave. While violence has slowed in Iraq, attacks continue, especially in the north. At least 55 people were killed Thursday in a suicide bombing in a restaurant near Kirkuk.

It was Bush's last trip to the war zone before Obama takes office Jan. 20. Obama won an election largely viewed as a referendum on Bush, who has endured low approval ratings because of the war and more recently, the U.S. recession.

Obama, a Democrat, has promised he will bring all U.S. combat troops back home from Iraq a little over a year into his term, as long as commanders agree a withdrawal would not endanger American personnel or Iraq's security. Obama has said the drawdown in Iraq would allow him to shift troops and bolster the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.

The new U.S.-Iraqi security pact, calls for all American troops to be withdrawn by the end of 2011, in two stages. The first stage begins next year, when U.S. troops pull back from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities by the end of June. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Saturday that even after that summer deadline, some U.S. troops will remain in Iraqi cities.

Journalists and staff who made the 10 1/2-hour trip to Iraq with the president agreed to tell almost no one about the plans, and the White House released false schedules detailing activities planned for Bush in Washington on Sunday.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

http://news.aol.com/article/man-throws-two-shoes-at-bush-in-iraq/241945 (There is a video on that link, too)


Like that will show him. lol.

 

[xAusT1n]

:chuckles::chuckles::chuckles::chuckles::chuckles::chuckles::chuckles:

 

[camakazee]

I was cracking up when I watched the video earlier this afternoon.

<object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ePGvxEtvThI&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ePGvxEtvThI&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>

It's hard to tell on the grainy youtube version, but it appears as though Bush smiles after the first throw. I think the man wasn't intelligent enough to be President and presented a certain amount of ineptitude that set our country back years. But, damn do I respect that gangsta :chuckles:. Either that or he thought it was some kind of joke

 

[the_chief]

If you go on digg.com they have a good video of it.

 

[Damage]

You know, I despise Bush as much as anyone. God knows he deserves to be shamed in public, but this didn't sit right with me. He's still my commander in chief and, even though I dislike him immensely for a bevy of reasons, I don't like seeing shit like this.

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

No doubt Damage. Silver lining is that douchebag will probably never be allowed in a media room again.....well, one would hope.

 

[Mandingo]

My question is where was the SS? This is the second time someone was able to be close enough to do bodily harm to the man and the SS doesn't show up until after everything is over.

 

[Walter White]

That was a nice dodge.....Bush got madskillz........ it would of been hilarious if he would of caught it in one hand in mid air and threw right back at that guys face :ninja:

 

[Splitz]

My question is where was the SS? This is the second time someone was able to be close enough to do bodily harm to the man and the SS doesn't show up until after everything is over.

After the first throw Bush waves off his head SS guy as if to say everything is fine, the S guy did indeed back off.

 

[Maximus]

Nice athleticality by Bush.

Braylon would have tried to catch the shoes...they would have bounced of his hands and broke his nose.

K2 would have just let them hit him in the face while yelling "I'M A SOULJA!!!!"(then he would have spent 2 weeks on the IR with a busted lip....followed by 6 more weeks out due to a staph infection)

Seriously it sickened me to see this happen. I don't care if it's Bush, Obama or Hillary...I don't want anyone doing something like this to our President. That reporter is lucky he didn't get shot.

 

[chiefwahoo]

I couldn't believe it when I saw it yesterday. Was at a bar in Broadview Heights with TV's all around but no sound. At first I thought it was some CGI in a commercial or something. Definitely some cat-like reflexes from Bush there. That guy is damn lucky he didn't get shot.

 

[Rick Astley]

If this was done in my country expect that dude to be floating in a shitty river the next morning. And also on a front page of a tabloid.

 

[Damage]

A quote by this Iraqi woman sums up my feelings:

Karim Muan al-Qaisi, a 50-year-old merchant, said: “Despite my hatred of Bush, he’s a president for a big country and a guest for the Iraqi government. And we are as easterners think insulting the guest is an insult for the host. Despite our hatred to the guest there should be respect and diplomacy.”

Conversely, we're not Iraqi's. Imagine if someone came into our country and destroyed it beyond repair? We would probably be cheering the action. JMO.

Ahmad Jbaeir, a 25-year-old law school student, said: “I was very glad when I saw the shoe on TV. I do not care even if he was a journalist or an ordinary citizen, but he expressed the feelings of Iraqis who hate Bush because he killed us. So we are demanding to release him.”

 

[MYoung23]

Forget all this stuff where can I get the animated gif?

 

[chiefwahoo]

Forget all this stuff where can I get the animated gif?

Lifted from Scuzzy's sig: