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Bush Dodges Shoes on Farewell Iraq Visit
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ShareDecember 14, 2008 8:13 AM
ABC News' Martha Raddatz reports from Baghdad:
President Bush's fourth and final visit to Baghdad may not have been quite the fond farewell he had in mind. Amid official visits with Iraqi leaders, the president wound up having to dodge a pair of shoes thrown by a screaming Iraqi journalist.
The surprise trip, Bush's first to Iraq since September 2007, was intended to celebrate a security pact between the U.S. and the Iraqi government.
Bush's schedule included talks with Iraqi leaders, U.S. troops and officials stationed in Iraq.
But at a joint news conference held with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a man identified as Muntadhar al-Zaiydi, a local television correspondent, threw a shoe at Bush and yelled, "This is a farewell kiss, dog!" and, "This is the end!"
The shoe sailed right past the president's head and the thrower was grabbed and dragged out of the room screaming.
Bush joked about it, saying, "That was a size 10 shoe he threw at me, you may want you to know."
The man's screams were still audible after he had been taken to a separate room.
Displaying the soles of one's shoes is considered a deep insult in much of the Arab world.
Despite the dramatically improved security in Iraq, every effort was made to keep the president’s travel plans quiet.
Reporters invited to make the trip were not told about it until Friday and were allowed to tell only one superior and a spouse.
By 7 p.m. Saturday, the reporters had assembled at Andrews Air Force Base, where they were escorted through an unmarked gate.
Secret Service agents took all the reporters’ cell phones, Blackberries and iPods. The group then was loaded into a black van and taken to a closed hangar where Air Force One, a massive 747, awaited.
The reporters were loaded onto the dark plane and told to keep their window shades down. Within an hour the president arrived by car at the hangar.
The president almost never comes to the back of the plane, but shortly after 9 p.m. he did come back.
He was dressed casually in a jacket and a baseball cap reading “43.” He joked with reporters that the plan for a secret departure had worked, and that no on had recognized him.
"They thought I was a different president,” he said.
Once the president returned to the front of the plane, the 747 was wheeled out of the hangar and took off in darkness, arriving in Baghdad in daylight more than 10 hours later.
Upon landing in Baghdad, the president was greeted by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and the top general in Iraq, Ray Odierno.
Bush will leave office on Jan. 20 with Iraq remaining the defining issue of his presidency. Since the 2003 invasion of the country, more than 4,200 U.S. military men and women have been killed and the U.S. has spent nearly $600 billion fighting the war. The Status of Forces Agreement, a new U.S. and Iraqi security agreement that calls for U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011, will go into effect in January.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates made an unannounced stop in Iraq Saturday. Gates has been tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to remain in his post.
During the president election, Obama called for the careful removal of all U.S. combat troops within the first 16 months of his presidency. He has singled an interest in increasing U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan.
December 14, 2008 in White House | Permalink | User Comments (287)
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I hope the hell he stay's in Iraq or moves to Africa. The worst president in american history. He makes Jimmy Carter look like a Rhodes Scholar.
Ex Republican
Posted by: RGeier | Dec 14, 2008 8:37:36 AM
Hell is too good for this creature.
Posted by: JoeForSure | Dec 14, 2008 9:10:20 AM
Why does he always make "surprise" visits while the Iranian president can visit with a red carpet welcome ceremony? Because the Iranians are coward?
Posted by: exrepub | Dec 14, 2008 9:10:58 AM
I thought he was busy figuring out a bail out plan for big 3? i guess iraqis are more important than millions of tax payers on the brink of losing jobs.
Posted by: Paul | Dec 14, 2008 9:13:42 AM
If Iraq is such a success, why did it have to be unannounced? Jeez, he and McCain are in complete denial. Sadly our troops aren't. BRING THEM HOME NOW BARACK!!! NO EXCUSES ANY LONGER!!!
Posted by: please! | Dec 14, 2008 9:14:31 AM
Please, please let W's ticket to Baghdad be one-way. He's in such love with his Iraqi failure it would only be right to relegate him to staying there permanently.
Posted by: NoBushNoWay | Dec 14, 2008 9:22:46 AM
Give the SOB a rifle and an assignment.
Posted by: tim osman | Dec 14, 2008 9:30:34 AM
Just a bunch of Bush Bashers. The man was showing respect to the troops you bunch of morons. Be patient Obama Bin Laden will be in office soon. Lets see how long it will be before he loses his GLOW.
Posted by: Paul | Dec 14, 2008 9:37:05 AM
George Bush is a human toxic waste dump. He has literally ruined the world with his right-wing nonsense.
Dino C.
Posted by: Dino | Dec 14, 2008 9:42:51 AM
The country is so polarized that all we hear are over the top comments about Bush. Give me a break,as there is plenty of blame to go around. Life isn't that black and white. that kind of thinking produces no ideas on how to help with the problem of Iraq. It's 8th grade stuff.
Posted by: richard warren | Dec 14, 2008 9:47:36 AM
As a centrist who is politically independent, the presidency is not about the ideology of the political party, it's getting things done with concern to foreign policy, economy and environment. Thank goodness, we're lucky enough to have new blood into the office. Same old, dinosaur politics needs to be refurbished.
Posted by: Bmoreu | Dec 14, 2008 10:02:00 AM
Great - more wasted fuel for the butcher of DC, more carbon footprint and he will always be seen as the worst most damaging illegally installed president in our history. The entire earth hates this ideological drunken lying fool.
Posted by: geneonlbk | Dec 14, 2008 10:10:56 AM
He arrived to say "goodbye"?! He should be APOLOGIZING to our troops for unnecessarily putting them in harms way. This guy is playing the part of the fool right up until his last second in office.
Posted by: GoHomeWarCriminal | Dec 14, 2008 10:28:41 AM
"TruthNMichigan" - I feel sorry for you, because you are a moron. Who will remember Bush as a "great President" exactly? Do you have some right wing scientists locked up in your cellar that you plan on releasing in 10 years only to write a bunch of positive books on Bush? Lol...please buddy. The VAST MAJORITY (which means at least 90%) of U.S. political historians have openly declared Bush a failure, and in many cases, the WORST U.S. PRESIDENT of all time! The only people who will remember him as being a "great President" will be the idiots who only watched FOX News (like you), and those who worked for the crooked companies that profited from the war and the Bush administration in general. President Obama is a better President already, and he hasn't even been sworn in yet.
BUSH=
WORST PRESIDENT EVER
Posted by: BushIsAnAmericanDisgrace | Dec 14, 2008 10:34:34 AM
The economy in s shambles, auto execs and their corporate jets, Auto company bailout dangling on Bushes word, money in tight supply, the world in chaos and Bush the problem child just has to make the taxpayers cough up more millions so he can take a trip to a country that would rather not see him ever again, how bout we do the world a favor and save the country some money and make it a one way trip!
Posted by: CC | Dec 14, 2008 10:47:01 AM
Why going there hiding Bush. You claimed you brought them democracy. Is it not the time the Iraq people sing for you and give you bunches of flowers??? and thank you!!
You really destroyed their country and ruined their lives George.
Posted by: FM | Dec 14, 2008 10:48:13 AM
LEEEEAVE JR. ALOOOONEEEeeee !!!!
He is actually brilliant...in his own way, but yes. Seriously, let's admit that the whole country has been had by a few and for quite a while, yet those involved are and will go UNSCATHED. Sure, some will find solace sayin' that history will judge him....ppfffttttt. The brilliant part that I credit him for is that W. doesn't care for nor comprehends legacy and consequences. After all, history only ends up as a written chapter in a dusty book stored somewhere.
Posted by: pLANETaX | Dec 14, 2008 10:49:42 AM
Lighten up on old Bush. Bush is only a symptom---not a cause. Sure--he is a no good deadbeat of a man. But on the positive side, his so obvious and blatant stupidity has come home to roast in the form of Americans finally realizing what a stupid bunch of people we "had" become. To cure this malady, we first had to recognize that it existed.I therefore think that Bush's legacy will always be ,that he brought us face to face with ourselves--And, as it turned out about 60 percent of us--did not like what we saw.
Posted by: jrc903 | Dec 14, 2008 11:00:51 AM
TYPICAL BUSH: He's been lying to us for 6 years about how much wonderful progress has been made in Iraq, and then HE HAS TO GO THERE IN SECRET because the SECURITY SITUATION IS SO BAD!!! Unemployment in Iraq is still over 50%, only 8 to 10 hours a day electricity in Baghdad, the water's not safe to drink, millions of Iraqis have had to fee the country, BILLIONS HAVE BEEN STOLEN by military contractors, but BUSH claims the TRILLIONS of American Taxpayer dollars and 4200 lives "were worth it." Those are the words of the WORST PRESIDENT IN 100 YEARS, and nobody but the most ultra-right wing nuts believe that nonsense.
Posted by: AlChemist | Dec 14, 2008 11:08:34 AM
Thanks Pres. Bush for leading us to victory in Iraq and I know the troops will welcome you there with eagerness. You have been remarkable at your commitment to fighting and winning this war and should be proud of the results. We have come together as a nation in so many ways with this kind of leadership and courage. We could also rest assured as a nation well protected from future terrorist aggression.
Posted by: David Stewart | Dec 14, 2008 11:28:58 AM
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