“This is a farewell kiss, you dog.”
The President was uninjured. He joked “All I can report is it is a size 10.”
Huffington PostIraq war: $576 billion in admitted costs to date. Not counting future costs such as VA costs for treating PTSD and other long-term health costs. Plus rebuilding Iraq, if we have the stones to own up to our liability.
An Iraqi television journalist hurled two shoes at President Bush on Sunday during a joint news conference Bush was holding with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to mark the signing of a U.S.-Iraq security agreement.
Bush had just finished his prepared remarks in which he said the security agreement was made possible by the U.S. surge of troops earlier this year, whhen the journalist, Muthathar al Zaidi pulled his shoes off and hurled them at the president. "This is a goodbye kiss, you dog," Zaidi shouted.
Bush dodged the shoes and was not struck. Bodyguards quickly wrestled Zaidi to the floor and hauled him, kicking and screaming, from the room. Two other Iraqi journalists were briefly detained after one of them called Zaidi's actions "courageous."
"This is the end!" shouted the man, 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.
The U.S. president visited the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the war off to President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it. The president wanted to highlight a drop in violence in a nation still riven by ethnic strife 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.
"There is still more work to be done," Bush said after his meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, adding that the agreement puts Iraq on solid footing.
"The war is not over," Bush said, adding that "it is decisively on it's way to being won."
It was at that point the journalist stood up and threw his shoe. 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 Hussein with their shoes after U.S. marines toppled it to the ground after the 2003 invasion.
Bush brushed off the incident, comparing it political protests at home.
"So what if I guy threw his shoe at me?" he said.
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.
Plus over 50,000 U.S. wounded, not to mention around one million Iraqi dead and wounded.
But let's not mention them. 'Cause coloreds don't count.
We just gave $700 Billion to bail out Wall Street, but can't afford $25 Billion to save the jobs of American auto workers.
Fuck dead brown people. Who gives a shit?
There's absolutely nothing more dangerous in the world than standing between a frightened white man and the door.
Between a WASP and money...
Between a WASP and oil they know damn well should be theirs.
Warning: As you comment, do NOT make the Secret Service look at this blog. I am not interested in your pushing the limits of free speech here. We all hate the son of a bitch. And he's still the President. Have some respect for the Office, if not for the man.
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