[Peace-discuss] Iraqi reporter throws shoe at Bush!

[E. Wayne Johnson]

If the guy was a pig farmer, he could do accomplish both flingings 
simultaneously.

LAURIE SOLOMON wrote:
>
> And now the poor Iraqi is shoeless; I am not sure that Bush was worth 
> the costs.  Now throwing renewable excrement at him --that's a 
> different matter. Isn't dreaming wonderful?
>
>  
>
> *From:* peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net 
> [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] *On Behalf Of *Chris 
> Tuck
> *Sent:* Sunday, December 14, 2008 4:50 PM
> *To:* Peace-discuss; peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> *Subject:* [Peace-discuss] Iraqi reporter throws shoe at Bush!
>
>  
>
> BAGHDAD -- 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 
> <http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/ynews;_ylt=AvbVcgYRoPUYJto5xFoeMC8Gw_IE?ch=4226716&cl=11096193&lang=en> 
> 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.
>
>
>
> -- 
> Chris Tuck
> "People should not be afraid of their governments,
> Governments should be afraid of their people."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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