President Bush was “Bushoed” in Iraq by a television reporter who was attending a news conference in Baghdad.
It was actually a shoe throwing incident that happened in a news conference with Iraq Prime Minister Al Maliki that was meant to be the farewell visit of President Bush before he steps down to give way to the new President-elect Barack Obama.
The shoe thrower was identified as Muntadar al Zeide a television correspondent of an Iraqi owned television station based in Egypt. The shoes were meant to hit Bush and were thrown one after the other. Bush saw it coming and he ducked as the Iraqi correspondent missed his target
Yelling “this is a farewell kiss, you dog” al Zeide acted. In Iraqi, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of contempt.
The whole incident was captured on live television event. Chaos ensued immediately as security personnel swarmed on Muntadar as he struggled with the crowd. He was charged and brought to an unknown destination but traces of blood was visible at the site of the incident.
Bush told reporters: “So what if the guy threw shoe at me?” as he cited similar actions in the United States. “If you want the facts, it was a size 10”, he said jokingly.
Bush later said of the incident: “It is a sign of democracy. That’s what people do in a free society, draw attention to themselves”
The shoes throwing incident may have stunned Bush momentarily but he seems used to such kind of incidents in his travel abroad where protesters are almost always there to greet him with disrespect. Bush is probably the most protested democratic leader of the world because of his controversial and often unpopular decisions.
Bush proceeded to Afghanistan for his farewell trip to the Middle Eastern countries. He seemed not affected by the incident and even had some prepared jokes to reporters about the incident.
On board his Air Force One. He said to reporters; “I didn’t know what the guy said, but I saw his sole” He said further, “I am going to be thinking of shoe jokes for a long time. I haven’t heard of any good ones yet.”