Lame (Duck) Iraq Visit Guarantees Bush Shoe-In As Worst President Ever

One can only imagine the special security measures added on top of the military presence that encompassed Mr. Bush’s “final” visit to the country he helped “liberate”, now under new management. Then, one man with contempt and some “fire in the belly” stands and assaults the pre-ordained photo opportunity, with only his two shoes. (I’m guessing that as he walked through whatever security doors were set up, he wore the two shoes he threw.)
The spectacle, forever to accompany George’s legacy, even with the current earnest attempts to define it currently on display, the spectacle illustrates the impotence of military might and overwhelming numbers in the face of determined small groups of men who are willing to risk it all. (I would guess this man will spend a long time out of the way.)
The proper way to defeat terrorism is not being articulated loudly or often enough by the incoming administration, I’m afraid. I don’t think that even Mr. Obama would be immune to this type of reception in Iraq or many other places in the Middle East.

What would happen to an Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at Saddam? You would have to watch a horror movie like Saw, Texas Chainsaw, or Hannibal to get some idea of what would have happened — no, what did happen.

I like the fact that the insult was directed at George W. Bush personally. I mean, he could have yelled Down with American imperialism or something. Still, I’m glad he missed. It’s much better that way.

Great comment about Maliki’s fatalism in photo #3. He didn’t even duck, though the guided missile was only 3′ from his head.
Meanwhile, Commander-in-Chief Bush took clever evasive action, the closest that he has come to wartime combat in his life.
Bush’s expression in #4 seems to indicate that he has recovered his calm, poise, and lack of curiosity- . . . . . brain in neutral again.
By the way, is that the Iraqi flag that was designed for the Iraqis by Americans?

My reaction to this is Profiles in Courage. Maliki doesn’t flinch or bat an eye. If the shoe were directed at him he would have caught it, spit on it and thrown it on the floor himself. Bush cowers exactly like the dog and pathetic coward he is. This is just a fantastic event to end bush’s last charade. And #4: bush gets it, he really gets it…. He is despised and despicable. The only person that has come close to delivering an insult like this, up close and personal was Steven Colbert. May we hope that there are many more similar incidents to follow.
God’s speed Barack Obama!

Two questions and a comment. Question #1, what’s the white-haired guy on our left reaching inside his suit jacket to grab? Question #2, how can Maliki keep his composure and not break down into laughter? After all, he knows what the guy said; he knows what the shoes represent; and knows that Bush is the jerk who, as recently announced, wiretapped Maliki’s own bedroom to record his pillow-talk.
Comment: That journalist is my hero.

LOL. Bush tries to do one last dog and pony show and the truth slaps (almost) him up side of the head. #4 for me is the looks on the faces of the security guards. The American almost looks scared whereas the Iraqi (I assume) guards are frowning and looking hard for more threats. Bush looks like he wants to send the guy to Guantanamo.

Bush still represents our nation, *my* nation– so, it makes me sad to again see how far we have fallen in global esteem– ho much respect we have ALL lost. Now if Bush had been a good… or even a mediocre president everyone would look at the shoe thrower as “just some asshole” — but instead his insulting action and lack of respect *sticks* — it stings. Because there is a little truth in it— It’s very sad and that is what I see on the face of the guy in #4– the man on the left– it’s the sickening feeling that we have no respect and might not even deserve respect.

My first post here, although a daily visitor. I think Bush, in #4 looks incredibly hung over. Swollen face, dark eyes, red nose. I’d guess he was on a bender on the flight over. I’m surprised the previous commenters haven’t said this and I wonder if it why you were particularly interested in this one of the four.

To me, #4 looks like Bush wants to throw his own shoe back at the guy, but since he’s covered in bodyguards he’d just end up missing his target.
Hey, that’s a good metaphor for Bush’s presidency, come to think about it.

What is this arabs name. It’s time to start the immortalization

I want the tape. I want instant replay. I’ve a question on the walls of the room. It looks like stone or block walls. In #4 the American [I assume shaved head Anglo looking guys are American] appears to be reaching for his weapon…. a checkbook. And the Golden Shoe award goes to …. The last political shoe incident I recall is Krushchev [sic], yes?

#4: I think the President looks sad, bewildered, tired, and a little eager to see the guy dragged away. Like he wants to make sure he gets what’s coming to him. (I can hear Bush saying, “Git ‘em! Heh heh!” In my head, Bush sounds like Jon Stewart’s impression of him.) I think the white security guy looks like he wants to cry a little. I think all the Iraqis look focused and unsurprised.
It’s my fond hope that “to throw a shoe” enters the language as a metaphor for expressing disgust, outrage, and disappointment. I predict Keith Olbermann will try to make it so.

If only we had a working press like this!
Instead the MSM have been Bush’s lapdogs.

#4 Alfred E. Newman returns. What they don’t like me?

It takes one brave person to do such an action.
One courageous person to stand up to the evil.
Too bad shoe did not hit the target.
I fear for you my friend, you are in a nest full of bloody beasts.
Hope you don’t feel their hate, may you be protected.

If the shoe fits….
You didn’t mention Dana Perino’s black eye (from a mike that got stuck in her eye) but that’s a metaphor rich target, too.

I think, judging from Bush’s reactions and his comments later, that there is a huge disconnect between the meaning Iraqis got out of the man’s action, and what Americans – Bush in particular – got out of it.
To Iraqis it has a huge meaning, the choice of using one’s shoes.
Bush seems to see it as nothing more than a “boo” or catcall. His joke afterward was his attempt at a putdown, but it was yet another example of his typical cluelessness.

I don’t think Bush is clueless as to what happened. He is just bluffing through bravado and trying to convince US he is unconcerned. I don’t buy his statement about this incident for a second.

No, actually, the last shoe violence incident was the shoe bomber’s attempt to light his shoes on an airplane.

It’s a look ( # 4 ) that we’ve had many glimpses of over these horrible Bush years, in particular I’ve been struck by those dead, dead eyes…spooky !

The shoe thrower will catch a couple of beatings for it, but when he gets out he’ll be a folk hero. He’s already a folk hero. Betcha his kids are saying, “That’s my Dad!” I was impressed with the accuracy of his throwing arm. Is there a Cy Young Award for disgruntled journalists? Does C.C. Sabathia write news stories?

Maliki didn’t even flinch. He looks amused…

this guy is a fucking hero.

so that’s why they’ve been making me take my shoes off when i travel.
nice reflexes, george.

Gr3g,
Actually, I was interest in #4 less because of Bush than because of the two security guys. Besides the great juxtaposition of the American and Iraqi, they seem so less concerned and pumped than Bush and Maliki. I can only assume they have already concluded it’s not that dangerous a situation (though I wonder what the American is reaching for). I was also wondering why neither of the Iraqi security guys are looking in the direction of the thrower.

They’re probably not looking in the direction of the thrower because he’s already being subdued by other guards, and he might have been a decoy or a diversion. If this had been a serious, coordinated attack, the second stage would have come from another source, and they needed to be ready for it.

Bush’s reaction here reminds me of the 7 minutes he sat staring into space with “My Pet Goat” on his lap after hearing about the second plane crashing into the twin towers. As if his default response to crisis is to just go blank, in hopes of seeming cool, calm and collected. But he doesn’t – he just seems blank.

George Bush Shoe Incident…full video!
watch here

You have to watch Al-Jazeera network to see the disgusting aftermath. I’m watching it now in Dubai.
The journalist is collared and beaten on the spot. He cries out in pain several times. Bush props himself up on the podium and–I am not making this up–smirks and giggles at each groan of the journalist as he is roughed up.
This guy (journalist) is dead meat. God knows what’s happening to him now. Bush will watch it on tape later, I’m sure.
Who’s following up on the jounralist’s fate? Nobody that I know of. Way to treat a hero, guys.

I want to know who picked up the shoes. Where are they now? If W was smart he would have those framed.

I am mailing a pair of old stinky shoes to the White House. I invite others to do the same. What can be done on behalf of the journalist? He should not lose his job or be imprisoned for doing what 99% of us lack the courage to do but admire him for doing.

Hey, the reporter was just insulting the president, and by him, the American people. I guess I don’t like to be insulted. The Iraqui people have a free country now, one where protest -throwing a shoe- will not get you killed. And this is the thanks they give to America, to the parents of children who have died in Iraqui soil to protect their freedom. I am not amused…my neighbor’s child died in Iraqui soil. This offends me greatly. When you gloat about this, please think of the parents of children serving in Iraq. Please.

I nominate the Iraqi journalist that threw his shoes at Bush for the Pulitzer Prize.

In #3 the white guy on the left, ther Bernie Kerick look-alike, might be a secret service agent. His expression seems to suggest: “OMG, I no longer have a job.”

Is there a Cy Young Award for disgruntled journalists?
Well, since you asked…

I’ve been horrified with Bush’s war of choice since the very beginning, but I don’t think that it would be right for him to be put to death for his crimes. I’ve often thought of him rotting in a jail cell with time to think about what he’s done.. but now I think I can see the perfect future for georgie:
People of all nations should pepper him with shoes.
Everywhere he goes he should be struck with work shoes, high heals, loafers, dog-crap encrusted army boots. His face constantly bruised and cut. Never wounded to the point of death, but humiliated at every turn. Pummeled senseless from time to time by his wife and daughters at the ranch. Under constant footware barrage during his speaking engagements and graduation speeches. No mercy.
The unspeakable suffering he’s brought into this world is unbounded. Limitless shame might teach him some humility.

KansasKowboy,
Prize for telling it like it is.
Petra > What thanks do you expect from Iraqi?
Thanks for the invasion based on lies?
Thanks for occupation and for killing of Iraqi people?
Thanks for the “commander” who got it all wrong?
I say the shoe is right on!… and …

Oops. Correx: Sted #3 above, I actually meant #4. Must have been dazzled by WMD hidden in shoes.

in picture #4 – the three Iraqis look pretty grim. The American (newsman?) looks dismayed, probably at the beating the thrower is getting. Bush looks like he is enjoying the beating the thrower is getting.

This man threw something at the President of the United States. You all really think that’s OK?

An enduring image of the arrogance of the invasion of Iraq was the heavy-duty military type boots that Rummy, Bremer et al always wore when visiting Iraq despite their standard-issue jackets and ties up top. They reveled in the macho image of tromping into another nation to make ‘em do what we say. How fitting a coda to this exercise in arrogance is a hurled pair of loafers.

i read somewhere nixon got pelted with tomatoes during a visit through latin america. if true, why haven’t those images become iconic?

The reporter is a coward, not a hero. He presumably went about his business while millions of his countrymen were shovelled into mass graves. If he had dared to do otherwise under Saddam, he would be either dead or would have been an exile. Now that he is free to protest, he does. There’s no courage in that.

I agree that Bush looks hung over. And I wonder what sound he made when he ducked. In #3 his mouth is open — the start of a scream perhaps?

@ ancestor: First, there’s no courage in protesting when all you’ll get for it is being dragged out by soldiers, beaten, imprisoned, and maybe disappeared? Are you for real? Second, your suggestion that everyone who didn’t get themselves tortured and killed by Saddam has no right to protest the way the we have conducted our occupation of Iraq stinks on ice. Third, if you’re seriously defending the U.S. occupation of Iraq on the grounds that it’s better now than it was under Saddam, well, you expect a hell of a lot less from your country than I do.

@ Petra: I’m sorry for your loss. Speaking for myself, one of the reasons I’m glad that this reporter did what he did is that it tears me up that our President has sent our sons and daughters to fight in this poorly planned and executed war. I don’t mean any disrespect to our people in uniform, and I would like to see President Bush answer for what he has done. This mess is his fault. The dishonor isn’t on the soliders. It’s on the President, and that’s where this reporter put it. I would rather see the President buried under a mountain of shoes than see men like this reporter turn to using IEDs and suicide bombs against our troops, who serve their country with honor.

If he had dared to do otherwise under Saddam, he would be either dead or would have been an exile.
saddam, saddam, saddam. you can’t excuse bush war crimes and ineptitude by blaming all on saddam.
tell all the children who’ve been made orphans they’re better off now than they were under saddam.
tell the dead families lying in their graves they should be grateful we liberated them.

someone asked what his name was. It is Muntazir al-Zaidi who is 29 who works for a Cairo based Television station, Baghdadiyah. This article has a little about him
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/57803.html

Wonderfull stuff. So nice to see how an ordinary person can sometimes have the opportunity to say (and do) what we all think.

I’m totally defending the idea that the occupation is better than the Saddam regime. Where do you get your information on the previous regime from? If anywhere. You should read Republic of Fear, the famous book written by the exile Kanan Makiya, by no means a defender of the war, about what went on prior. There’s incredible ignorance or forgetting about the reign of Saddam and his family. Maybe you are saying that people have never had it worse in history than under the U.S. occupation of Iraq? Things were worse before — as a slave plantation or concentration camp is worse than Dodge City, though people got killed in both.

“I was able to get a sense of his soul, said George after eyeballing Putin,
How fortunate hes now seen the soles of millions of Arabs !!!

You missed my point, ancestor. Saying that occupied Iraq is better than Iraq under Saddam is like saying that the Jim Crow era was better than slavery. True, but what’s your point? The Jim Crow era was a time of atrocities, a period of shame and horror in our history. “Better than a living nightmare” isn’t the same as “good.” Should we be proud that we liberated Iraq? Yeah, probably, even though that wasn’t why we went there, and we were a big part of making it that bad in the first place. Should we be proud of the job we’ve done since we’ve been there? Shit no. Jesus. To reiterate: I expect more from us than what we’ve done. The President has screwed this whole thing right the hell up. He deserves nothing but shoes for the rest of his life.

Yeah, I know – late coming to the party; it’s fashionable ya know.
Did anyone else notice the slowness of the security protecting Doofus? It wasn’t until AFTER the second shoe came sailing past Dubya’s head, and even then it was sluggish.
I’m hoping this guy is all right. He was supposed to show up in court today but didn’t appear. They were beating (kicking) the shit out of him on the floor in the press conference area. And Bush – how much longer is this shit going to drag on? 36 days?

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