Bush and Iraq
President Bush's final trip to Iraq to say goodbye may not have been fairly the fond farewell he had in mind. Not everyone was greeting Bush as a great knight in shining armour during his secret visit. One Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi decided to hurl his shoes at the Decider during a joint press conference Bush was holding with Iraqi Premier Nouri al Maliki. The surprise visit was planned to commemorate a security pact between the U.S. and the Iraqi government. But, at the end of the day, the president wound up having to dodge a pair of shoes thrown at him. This brave journalist has acted on behalf of billions of people worldwide. It is an irony that Bush wanted to leave office with a bang as the liberator of Iraq has to slink into Iraq and hide behind the Green Zone. On top of that he got a sent-off with a shoe!
The media reports that the journalist shouted in Arabic 'This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog' and threw one of his shoes at the President, who ducked and narrowly avoided being struck. He had time to hurl his other shoe as well, before he was wrestled to the ground and dragged from the room.
The second shoe also barely missed the President. Bush joked about it, saying, "That was a size 10 shoe he threw at me.” While it's true that it is undesirable and embarrassing for the US President to have a pair of shoes thrown at him, possibly it would provide us well to be looking at what he has done in the last seven years to not only cause this to happen, but to cause citizens of his own country to find humour in it, and to wish that he'd been hit with a shoe. He and his administration have caused the US humiliation and to lose face with much of the rest of the world.
Nevertheless, one has to acknowledge that Bush is good at dodging (shoes, facts, questions, the draft, impeachment and so on). He has pretty good reflexes for an old dude, but then he's possibly pretty nervous lately, wondering when the other shoe will drop! You would think the world would realize by now he is the best Dodge ball player out there, all seriousness aside, did you see his moves on TV? Pretty impressive! I wonder if the man who threw the shoes got them back ?
One thing is for certain: This episode will inspire an entire new series of computer video games where the President has to dodge flying shoes. Somehow, I cannot help but see the bad guy in the game as being Bush.
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