Iraqi Journalist Throws Shoes at President Bush (VIDEO)

By TheImproper.com

An Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Iraq on Dec. 14.

Bush was on a secret to Iraq and speaking before a roomful of reporters when a man abruptly hurled two shoes at him. “This is a farewell kiss, you dog!” the protester shouted in Arabic.

The man hurling the shoes was Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi, a reporter with Cairo-based network Al Baghdadia Television.

Colleagues say Zaidi was furious because he had been kidnapped by Shiite militiamen last year and was later released. In an eyewitness account of the shoe-throwing incident, reporter Adam Ashton said Bush had just finished his speech and was preparing to take questions from the Iraqi media, who previously have never had a chance to ask a question to the American president when “the shoes started flying.”

Bush, who was not hit, later joked, “It was a size 10.” The U.S. president visited the Iraqi capital a month before he hands the widely unpopular Iraq War off to his successor, Barack Obama, who has vowed to end it.

During his speech, Bush wanted 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.” And that’s when the shoes went flying.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmaBhHJbbes]