President Bush nearly hit by flying shoes
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What a joke attacking the most powerful Man on planet earth - with shoes! This is Iraqis Weapon of Mass Destruction - My Foot!
AP - On a whirlwind trip shrouded in secrecy and marred by dissent, President George W. Bush on Sunday hailed progress in the wars that define his presidency and got a size-10 reminder of his unpopularity when a man hurled two shoes at him during a news conference in Iraq.
"This is your 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 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."
Bush then flew to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan for a rally with more than 1,000 U.S. and foreign troops. "Afghanistan is a dramatically different country than it was eight years ago," he said. "We are making hopeful gains."
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.
There are about 31,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan now, and commanders have called for up to 20,000 more. The need is especially great in southern Afghanistan, long a stronghold of the Taliban and the place where recent spikes in violence have proven the insurgency capable of reasserting itself.
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 when she was hit in the face with a microphone during the melee. Bush brushed off the incident. "So what if a 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.
Air Force One, the president's 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. The two leaders signed a 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.
It was Bush's last trip to the war zone before Obama takes office Jan. 20. 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.
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Second row from the front, two shots and still missed. No wonder they lost the fucking war.
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firing shoes. what next.
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UK had an experience with a bumbling shoe bomber once. The explosives in the shoe were no joke though.
I wonder if journos will have to go bare-feet from next press meeting onwards... :x(
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he took it quite well though....
i wonder what will happen if someone throw a shoe to lky......
he is not gonna get away as easy
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Originally posted by BEARZAIS:
he took it quite well though....
i wonder what will happen if someone throw a shoe to lky......
he is not gonna get away as easy
For all you know, he might be able to dodge it with a Matrix... -
The Matrix: Bush pwned ver.
*cannot see not my problem...
*there are other variations at, http://forums.nonewbs.com/showthread.php?p=2842761#post2842761
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Originally posted by Vendettus:
For all you know, he might be able to dodge it with a Matrix...You don't know ah? He is actually the One. Wong kan seng is Morpheus.
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This is one of those days, that a pair of shoes isn't enough ! Give that good man a few more pair !!! Size 10 not big enough !! Big idiot need to be thrown with size 12 and above. Suggestion to "NIKE" for advertisment - "Our shoe is more aerodynamical, if a pair of Nike is used instead, they would not have missed Bush !" - within next 3 months Nike will see huge increase in sales in world wide sales , especially in middle east !!! Learn something from ladies, use high-heel instead !!!
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That clip made my day on that cold morning in a freezing bus.
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Did the reporter get his shoes back?
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like tat also can miss, noob.
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I think that sums up his presidency
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uhm. guided shoe munition!
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Originally posted by ~N3RD~:
The Matrix: Bush pwned ver.
*cannot see not my problem...
*there are other variations at, http://forums.nonewbs.com/showthread.php?p=2842761#post2842761
Wow! The guy who threw the shoes were actually quite accurate! Just that Bush dodged them pretty quickly.... I'm quite amazed. I think I'd have shoe right in my face if I were in Bush's shoes.
Where was the secret service?
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hey..
look on the bright side. Bush did make things better for Iraq. if this were saddam, this dude's whole clan would probably be sleeping with the fishes in the TIgiris river by now.
On the downside, if he did hit bush, they might find another reason for Bush to invade iraq again.weapons of mass distraction have to be destroyed. they make america less secure.
but seriouslly, In Middle Eastern and Arab culture, throwing a shoe at someone is just one level above stoning the devil. It is a supreme insult. I wonder what happened to the guy who threw the shoes. did they throw him into guantanamo or Abu Gharib
and damned, i think the secret service guy must have lost his job. what if the bomb was a shoe bomb ? wouldnt Bush and Maliki be on the headlines ?
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lol. Thankfully for Bush, he failed at bringing democracy to Iraq. Otherwise the shoe-thrower will be the next elected Iraqi PM.
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at least shoe hit the US flag behind..
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he shouldn't throw his shoe... he should throw himself instead... wah... I don't think the shoe thrower will be hanged... If you do this in sg... you definitely cannot survive the next day...
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Originally posted by sgstars:
hey..
look on the bright side. Bush did make things better for Iraq. if this were saddam, this dude's whole clan would probably be sleeping with the fishes in the TIgiris river by now.
On the downside, if he did hit bush, they might find another reason for Bush to invade iraq again.weapons of mass distraction have to be destroyed. they make america less secure.
but seriouslly, In Middle Eastern and Arab culture, throwing a shoe at someone is just one level above stoning the devil. It is a supreme insult. I wonder what happened to the guy who threw the shoes. did they throw him into guantanamo or Abu Gharib
and damned, i think the secret service guy must have lost his job. what if the bomb was a shoe bomb ? wouldnt Bush and Maliki be on the headlines ?
Bush make things better for Iraq ? That the biggest joke !!! Iraq was much better off under Saddam, they have better life ... !!!
How many peopel die because of saddam, & how many die because of Bush ?
if it was still under Saddam - that guy would be fishing at the river !!! Who the person who invaded their country in the false name of weapon of mass destruction ? Who the person who took control of their oil ? who the person who make their life more miserable then under saddam !!! BUSH!!!
Face the fact, bush did not went to save the people !! he went there for their oil !!! he did nothing for the people there beside robbing them more then saddam !!!
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why show a shoe as an insult??? THROW A FUCKING GRENADE!
the one president that really ought to be killed. WHY is it that no one even tried to assassinate him?? WHY????? T.T
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Wah StoryWolf .. U from Iraq ? You seem to hate Bush like He slaughtered all the ants in your house ? Lolz .. As for Me .. I am not taking any sides .. I dun like Bush or Saddam ..
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HEHEHEHEHEHHEHEHEEHEE....
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Originally posted by udontknowme:
why show a shoe as an insult??? THROW A FUCKING GRENADE!
the one president that really ought to be killed. WHY is it that no one even tried to assassinate him?? WHY????? T.T
u noe, e Amerian President is e most powerful person in e world.