Today as current President Bush visited Iraq and attended a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, he was reminded of how mush he is disliked through out the world. Again I am reminded of how highly he thinks of himself and his policies, and how much of a stark contrast his personal view is from the national and international view of him and his policies. His foreign policy was defined today with a aggressive statement. A size 10 for an exclamation point on the end of it.
Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt shouted in Arabic "This is a farewell kiss, you dog!" as he threw what appeared to be his right shoe and then bent over and pulled his left shoe off took another shot at giving President Bush a boot to the head.
Bush dodged both low velocity shoes easily, though he was visibly shaken after the first shoeing attempt. Each shoe slammed the the American flag against the wall as they stood proudly behind President Bush.
From the video the Flag was the only thing that had the Presidents back. Muntadar al-Zeidi, the would be shoeman was taken down in the video by a fellow journalist. It was after Muntadar al-Zeidi was already down that Secret Service storms into the picture to control the situation.
There are some reports that White House press secretary Dana Perino suffered an eye injury in the news conference melee but I can't seem to find her in the video. Unless she was either behind the flag or under the podium.
The President later played down the situation stating "I didn't feel the least bit threatened by it"
In the Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of absolute contempt. This was evident in 2003 as Iraqis thrashed a statue of Saddam with their shoes after U.S. marines toppled it to the ground.
