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Bush Shoe-wn a Good Time in Baghdad
I'm not sure this incident is any worse than simply having to talk to Helen Thomas, but here's the 411 on the Baghdad shoe-throwing incident:
Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes and an insult at George W. Bush, without hitting him, as the US president was shaking hands with the Iraqi premier at his Baghdad office on Sunday.
As the two leaders met in Nuri al-Maliki's private office, a journalist sitting in the third row jumped up, shouting: "It is the farewell kiss, you dog," and threw his shoes one after the other towards Bush.
Maliki made a protective gesture towards the US president, who ducked and was not hit.
The journalist, Muntazer al-Zaidi from Al-Baghdadia channel which broadcasts from Cairo, was frogmarched from the room by security staff, an AFP journalist said.
Soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture. After Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled in Baghdad in April 2003, many onlookers beat the statue's face with their soles.
Some Iraqi journalists stood up to apologise.
The White House said Bush ducked to avoid the first shoe, while the second narrowly missed the president.
Bush said: "Thanks for apologising on behalf of the Iraqi people. It doesn't bother me. If you want the facts, it was a size 10 shoe that he threw".
Playing down the incident, the president later added: "I don't know what the guy's cause is... I didn't feel the least bit threatened by it."
One question: Did the guy throw the very shoes he was wearing? Or had he brought a spare? I suspect that footwear will be the least of his problems for a while.
BDB|12.15.08 @ 8:13AM|#
I can't imagine a more appropriate capstone for the Bush presidency than that.
Atlanta Matt|12.15.08 @ 8:13AM|#
Say what you will about Bush, but that dude has mad ninja reflexes.
Mad Max|12.15.08 @ 8:14AM|#
I think I see the symbolism here - if the soles of your shoes
make contact with someone, you are basically trampling them
underfoot.
Or maybe the insult is taking off one's shoes, thereby exposing
your enemy to the odor.
VM|12.15.08 @ 8:23AM|#
*shudders at pseudo violent act at the president*
don't be doing stuff like that. we want to move away from violence,
not towards. I don't care what you think of the president. No
movement towards violence. No violence.
Use your words, mr Reporter. use your words.
I'm glad he's okay!
now that that's out of the way:
WHO THROWS A SHOE??? HONESTLY!!!
Abdul|12.15.08 @ 8:25AM|#
Ha! Saddam was so popular that journalists never threw shoes at him during press conferences.
ed|12.15.08 @ 8:28AM|#
I predict Chip Bok's Friday cartoon will show the White House Press Corps being forced to remove their shoes before entering the briefing room.
|12.15.08 @ 8:30AM|#
I'm not sure this incident is any worse than simply having to talk to Helen Thomas
Having heard her speak at a public event once, I say bring on the
footwear.
|12.15.08 @ 8:44AM|#
He actually had a pretty good comeback. I saw a clip of it on...
some 1/2 evening news broadcast last night. He said something like
"that's the kind of thing that happens when you live in a free
country."
I'm not sure that really applies because it's the president and the
guy got hauled away, but it's the right sentiment toward the
insult.
ed|12.15.08 @ 8:48AM|#
Bush thought of retorting with his Ed Sullivan impersonation but figured, given the foreign press, that it would just go over their heads.
|12.15.08 @ 8:52AM|#
Aw, and after all he's done for them!
You gotta admit, though, Bush as good reflexes for a man his
age.
perilisk|12.15.08 @ 8:56AM|#
"WHO THROWS A SHOE??? HONESTLY!!!"
Goddamn it, now I have nothing to say.
|12.15.08 @ 9:04AM|#
Best part: he was kinda smiling as he popped back up from behind the podium like a big eared prarie dog. Whack a Bush!
Ska|12.15.08 @ 9:06AM|#
I truly hope the shoes were being thrown at the man and not the idea of the United States. My idea of it, anyway.
|12.15.08 @ 9:08AM|#
Throwing one shoe too high is understandable. The physics of the thrown shoe can be a mystery for some. But to miss twice... in a row? Unacceptable. His professor in Arabic Shoe Insults down at the Learning Annex should hang his head in shame.
Mad Max|12.15.08 @ 9:19AM|#
"His professor in Arabic Shoe Insults down at the Learning Annex
should hang his head in shame."
Saddam filled all the Arabic Shoe Insult professorships with Baath
Party apparatchiks, firing all the true experts. The new regime
kept the apparatchiks in office for the sake of stability. Result:
A regrettable education gap in the shoe-throwing field, as these
unqualified professors produce a generation of shoe-throwing
illiterates.
Elemenope|12.15.08 @ 9:22AM|#
Throwing one shoe too high is understandable. The physics of
the thrown shoe can be a mystery for some. But to miss twice... in
a row? Unacceptable. His professor in Arabic Shoe Insults down at
the Learning Annex should hang his head in shame.
When your target is a wily monkey, all bets are off.
|12.15.08 @ 9:23AM|#
Two things I noticed that bothered me. One, where was the secret service? Shouldn't they have swarmed Bush at the first shoe? How did they know it was only another shoe coming second? And secondly, why didn't they shoot guy square between the eyes? I think some secret service people need to lose their jobs. If this is how slowly they react Bidgen will be President before summer.
Travis|12.15.08 @ 9:26AM|#
"where was the secret service? Shouldn't they have swarmed Bush
at the first shoe? How did they know it was only another shoe
coming second?"
They were probably thinking, I don't want to take a shoe for this
asshole.
|12.15.08 @ 9:27AM|#
It would've been cooler if he'd caught the shoe and thrown it right back at his assailant, à la Jack Burton.
|12.15.08 @ 9:27AM|#
Elemenope,
I imagine Mad Max is pretty spot on. A properly trained Arabic Shoe
Insulter would have studied the Wily Monkey Defense and prepared a
counter.
Dana Perino got hit by a microphone, but a phallic object ramming
her in the face is a fairly typical Friday night for her.
Fluffy, Iraq Shoe Guy Fanclub |12.15.08 @ 9:27AM|#
One funny thing to me about the incident is that Bush's quick
reflexes and bemused expression made me think he's not really all
that surprised to be getting shoes thrown at him.
If someone threw their shoe at me today, I'd be quite surprised.
Bush is not.
This seems to be of a piece with the public demeanor he's had for
the last six months or so, which has been one of resignation. He
seems quite aware that everyone hates him and doesn't seem to be
deluding himself about it.
|12.15.08 @ 9:30AM|#
It would've been cooler if he'd caught the shoe and thrown
it right back at his assailant, à la Jack Burton.
Unless he missed and hit an innocent reporter. Then we'd be
watching three days of Middle East rioting and Al Jazeera calling
for the release of Richard Reid.
|12.15.08 @ 9:46AM|#
With reflexes like that, maybe Bush has a future on the stage in Vegas; Penn and Teller could work him into a knife-throwing routine (or the bullet catching trick).
Eric Hanneken|12.15.08 @ 9:57AM|#
After all of the talk about how The Surge has succeeded, it puts things in perspective to see that the President's visits to Iraq still have to be surprises.
|12.15.08 @ 9:58AM|#
This may be Bush's Killer
Rabbit moment.
If you want the facts, it was a size 10 shoe that he
threw
Damned incompetent Iraqis. Bring a pair of combat boots next
time!
anarch\'s A-Maizing Headline F|12.15.08 @ 10:03AM|#
Iraqi Regime Change A Shoe-In.
President, Sitting, Ducks.
|12.15.08 @ 10:04AM|#
Nah, no one was impressed by how Jimmy Carter dispatched that
rabbit.
Whereas Bush is one shoe-dodging s.o.b.
Seriously, that was pretty impressive I would have been too
surprised to duck that fast.
ed|12.15.08 @ 10:06AM|#
It's the birth of a new carnival game.
Think whack-a-mole, but with shoes and dodging presidents.
NP|12.15.08 @ 10:13AM|#
You guys are getting this all wrong. It was carefully pre-planned, just like you-know-what.
|12.15.08 @ 10:14AM|#
I'm half his age, and both of those shoes would have hit
me.
Keep in mind there are bright lights pointed at him as well during
a conference like this, hard to see much out in the audience.
|12.15.08 @ 10:17AM|#
Keep in mind there are bright lights pointed at him as well
during a conference like this, hard to see much out in the
audience.
It was a set-up to make Bush look sympathetic! Call Oliver
Stone!
|12.15.08 @ 10:18AM|#
Bummer, too bad it wasnt a hand grenade the guy threw!
Jess
http://www.privacy.de.tc
thoreau|12.15.08 @ 10:28AM|#
VM-
It wasn't violence. It was a symbolic gesture. A totally,
completely earned symbolic gesture.
Bush and his fellow war-starters should be subject to humiliation
and ostracism whenever they go out in public. They should face
rotten tomatoes and curses at every speech. Old ladies should make
the sign to ward off evil. If there's a mud paddle, kids should
kick it to splash at them. Drivers should flash the middle finger
at them. When they visit the zoo, monkeys should fling poo at them.
Shopkeepers should kick them out of their stores, and waitresses
should spill coffee on them. Whenever they show their faces, every
decent person should show them nothing but scorn. They should be
subject to constant mockery and derision and total ostracism from
every decent place for everything that they have done.
They deserve nothing less. They are complete and utter scum.
|12.15.08 @ 10:45AM|#
Can we get that shoe throwing journalist a Medal of Freedom,
please?
He *did* miss, so he's got that going for him.
|12.15.08 @ 10:45AM|#
thoreau,
Agreed. All this guy
did was beat up some stone penises and he got banned from the
country for 10 years.
One night during preparations for the expedition the hermai, heads of the god Hermes on a plinth with a phallus, were mutilated throughout Athens. This was a religious scandal and was seen as a bad omen for the mission. Plutarch explains that Androcles, a political leader, used false witnesses who accused Alcibiades and his friends of mutilating the statues, and of profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries.
VM|12.15.08 @ 10:47AM|#
doktor t -
pseudo violent.
don't mind the verbal stuff at all. it's that the shoe is on the
way to what that privacy guy is saying. hurl insults, not
projectiles
you know how deadly a shoe can be - viz Random Task!
|12.15.08 @ 10:49AM|#
It wasn't violence. It was a symbolic gesture.
t, I suspect that if I threw a shoe at you in the US of A, I would
be shortly be sitting at county trying to raise bail on for assault
and attempted battery.
Of course it was a violent gesture. The fact that it also has
symbolic overtones in primitive cultures doesn't change that.
|12.15.08 @ 10:52AM|#
That is awesome footage.
But which is better: this or the footage of John Glenn getting
punched on camera sometime in the late 80s.
thoreau|12.15.08 @ 10:52AM|#
If you threw a shoe at me in the US of A, my response would be "That really hurt! I mean, who throws a shoe? Honestly! You fight like a woman!"
|12.15.08 @ 10:57AM|#
You fight like a woman!
Sadly, you have once again highlighted the gender segregation of
your chosen field. If you spent any time around women you would
know they would never waste a precious shoe on the likes of
you.
Spraying each other playfully with a garden hose? That's how women
fight.
dhex|12.15.08 @ 10:59AM|#
maybe he just wanted to shoe him a good time.
and i think everyone gets the symbolism of throwing shoes at
people, even if it has more zing in other cultures.
|12.15.08 @ 11:00AM|#
The fact that it also has symbolic overtones in primitive
cultures doesn't change that.
Remember, everyone, people who opposed the Iraq War are racists,
who don't think Arabs are advanced enough for democracy.
BDB|12.15.08 @ 11:01AM|#
Since it was an Iraqi who did it, I'm can't really get very outraged over the "violent" overtones.
BDB|12.15.08 @ 11:02AM|#
"joe | December 15, 2008, 11:00am | #
The fact that it also has symbolic overtones in primitive cultures
doesn't change that.
Remember, everyone, people who opposed the Iraq War are racists,
who don't think Arabs are advanced enough for democracy."
I never understood that either from the LGF crowd. Are Arabs and/or
Muslims just waiting to welcome liberating American troops so they
can explode into an Arab Spring, or are they violent primitive
savages who only understand violence? I've even seen the two tropes
mentioned in the same paragraph by people before(!)
BDB|12.15.08 @ 11:05AM|#
There's a similar parallel on the left, too, where American soldiers are innocent victims of the proletariat being slaughtered for Haliburton one moment, and vicious, psychotic, redneck killing machines the next.
|12.15.08 @ 11:15AM|#
Wouldn't it be wonderful if thousands of people dug back in their closet for an old, worn out pair of shoes and then mailed them to Dubya c/o The White House. Something to enhance his legacy.
BDB Copy Editor|12.15.08 @ 11:15AM|#
Proletarian victims. Sorry. You know what I'm getting at though, right? See: Fahrenheit 9/11. Both tropes are in the same damn movie!
|12.15.08 @ 11:38AM|#
Maybe, t., but I don't think there's any question that throwing
a shoe is a (relatively minor) act of violence, one that can get
you jailed in the US.
Nice segue from my observation about culture to race, there, joe.
Some of us can tell the difference, and some can't, I guess.
|12.15.08 @ 11:40AM|#
Bush is clearly a master of Shoe-fu. Too bad he didn't reveal this skill earlier on, because Iraq, with its shoe fetish, would've surrendered without a fight.
|12.15.08 @ 11:43AM|#
Nice segue from my observation about culture to race, there,
joe.
Thanks, but I can't really take credit for it. Accusing people who,
allegedly, didn't think Iraqi culture was ready for democracy of
being racists was a consistent talking point of your side for the
first several years of the Iraq War. I'm just throwing your own
lame-ass argument back in your face.
Some of us can tell the difference, and some can't, I
guess.? Yes, some of US can. It's good to see that some of YOU
have finally gotten it through your thick skulls, too.
bob|12.15.08 @ 11:46AM|#
Since this will be president fumble duck's last Christmas in office, I thought it would be nice to send him an appropriate gift.
|12.15.08 @ 12:10PM|#
joe @ 11:43 am is an excellent example of the collectivist mind
at work. "your side" "some of YOU" (not me, you will note, but I
nonetheless get smeared with that broad brush).
So, joe, I guess you won't mind next time I lump you in with some
of your idiot fellow travellers, no?
|12.15.08 @ 12:16PM|#
Hey, look over there, everybody, collectivism! Side we me, side
with me!
But since we're on the subject of collectivist minds at work,
here's my nomination:
Of course it was a violent gesture. The fact that it also has
symbolic overtones in primitive cultures doesn't change
that.
Racism is the lowest form of collectivism.
Kolohe|12.15.08 @ 1:01PM|#
Man, the Curse of Tecumseh is realling phoning it in these days like a latter day Don Adams.
jasno|12.15.08 @ 1:11PM|#
So I've got some time to kill and the only question on my mind is, "when is the 'throw shoes at GWB' flash game coming out?"
|12.15.08 @ 1:14PM|#
I wonder what Muntazer al-Zaidi was doing with his shoes while Saddam was in power? I will take a guess that he was trembling in them.
|12.15.08 @ 1:31PM|#
Oh, look! Racism, racism, racism, racism, racism, racism. I tire of empty epithets.
apologist for imperialism|12.15.08 @ 1:32PM|#
Are Arabs and/or Muslims just waiting to welcome liberating
American troops so they can explode into an Arab Spring, or are
they violent primitive savages who only understand violence? I've
even seen the two tropes mentioned in the same paragraph by people
before(!)
They're like junkies seeking treatment at a methadone clinic.
thoreau|12.15.08 @ 1:43PM|#
Apologist for Imperialism gets comment #69 in the thread. It seems appropriate.
thoreau|12.15.08 @ 1:51PM|#
Which is all the more reason why the coveted comment #69 should go to you.
|12.15.08 @ 1:58PM|#
Just to refresh your memories: Do you remember the images of Iraqi men (many of them) pounding the face of Saddam's statue with their shoes after the statue was pulled down by American soldiers.
Studs McGonagle|12.15.08 @ 2:01PM|#
Join The Million Shoe March
The net is just full of comedy about the really big shoe this
morning. Old one-liners that refer to shoes are being recycled
everywhere to good effect, and a few Republican Patriots are
weighing in with steel-toed jackboots of their own. Stiletto heels
for Condoweezie? LMAO!
But here's the real punch line: let's all send Bush a shoe or two
for Christmas. Here's the address:
President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
Extra props for manure-encrusted farm boots lolz.
|12.15.08 @ 2:37PM|#
Remember, everyone, people who opposed the Iraq War are
racists, who don't think Arabs are advanced enough for
democracy.
Once again winning the argument that was never made. Opposing the
Iraq war was not associated with racism. Opposing it because the
savages could never embrace democracy was racist. I know it gets
confusing sometimes...
|12.15.08 @ 3:09PM|#
Once again winning the argument that was never made.
Opposing the Iraq war was not associated with racism. Opposing it
because the savages could never embrace democracy was
racist.
No one ever made this argument that I can now lay out with perfect
recall.
I guess I was never called a racist who didn't think Arabs were fit
for democracy. I guess no one else was, either. I guess I invented
those memories of war supporters spreading that accusation far and
wide against everyone who said the war was a bad idea.
Right. How silly of me.
|12.15.08 @ 3:19PM|#
If only Married with Children were still on TV (I mean, not just in reruns...) can you imagine how many jokes Al Bundy would get out of this?
|12.15.08 @ 3:35PM|#
I guess I invented those memories of war supporters
spreading that accusation far and wide against everyone who said
the war was a bad idea.
Correct.
I don\'t even care|12.15.08 @ 3:42PM|#
"This is a farewell kiss, you dog," al-Zeidi yelled in Arabic as
he threw his shoes. "This is from the widows, the orphans and those
who were killed in Iraq."
Have you noticed how many press accounts left out the part about
the widows, orphans and dead people?
Bush shoulda said "oh fuck, you noticed that?"
|12.15.08 @ 3:44PM|#
Do you remember the images of Iraqi men (many of them)
pounding the face of Saddam's statue with their shoes after the
statue was pulled down by American soldiers.
I do, indeed. What happened next?
|12.15.08 @ 3:51PM|#
Not a bad moment for Bush IMO.
Good job with the ninja ducking
Good job with the response after the matter.
Good job tying it into freedom.
|12.15.08 @ 3:55PM|#
"""Have you noticed how many press accounts left out the part
about the widows, orphans and dead people?"""
Every press account I've seen or heard has mentioned it. I've only
seen a few so far.
""""Opposing the Iraq war was not associated with racism.""""
I heard far more supporters being racist than the opposition. I'd
love to have a dollar for every sandnigger, or towelhead commment I
heard from the pro-war crowd.
|12.15.08 @ 3:59PM|#
Both expressions of racism, and accusations of racism, were
flowing like the Merrimack out of the pro-war side back in
aught-two and aught-three.
Half of them were talking about taking it to the A-rabs and showin'
em who's boss, while the other half were saying that anyone who
doubted that Iraq would quickly turn into a war Minnesota thought
that Arabs were unfit for democracy.
It's pretty amazing what the hawks used to be able to get away
with. What a strange period of history to live through.
|12.15.08 @ 4:18PM|#
I heard far more supporters being racist than the
opposition. I'd love to have a dollar for every sandnigger, or
towelhead commment I heard from the pro-war crowd.
I recall all of the above. We shouldn't be there because
sandniggers aren't worth dead Americans, and they're too dumb for
democracy anyway, to we should go over there and blow up some
islams. The "they aren't ready for democracy" was the more subtle
form of racism. I could be wrong. Some people hear dog whistles
that aren't there. You know, THOSE types.
|12.15.08 @ 4:34PM|#
"bigbigslacker | December 15, 2008, 3:35pm | #
I guess I invented those memories of war supporters spreading
that accusation far and wide against everyone who said the war was
a bad idea.
Correct."
Forty three minutes. Impressive.
|12.15.08 @ 4:34PM|#
I also heard them both.
From the anti war side, I heard:
"they have been fighting eachother for thousands of years, it will
never change".
"they have a different culture, they are not ready for
democracy"
And various other forms of subtle and not so subtle racism.
From the pro war side, I have heard "turn the whole region into a
glass lake"
"shoot 'em all till they learn"
And various other Dondero-isms.
Missing the Good Old Days in I|12.15.08 @ 4:39PM|#
From a July 2003 report in the Times of London:
A chief executioner to one of Saddam's sons has revealed how he
helped drag two victims into a cage to be devoured by lions.The
executioner said that he was ordered to seize two 19-year-old
students and take them to a farm of Uday Hussein, Saddam's oldest
son who was killed by American forces last week.As soon as they
arrived the students were dragged to a cage containing the lions
and forced inside. "I saw the head of the first student literally
come off his body with the first bite," he said. He then had to
stand and watch the animals devour the two young men: "By the time
they were finished there was little left but for the bones and bits
and pieces of unwanted flesh."He was told later that the two young
men "had competed with Uday
|12.15.08 @ 4:47PM|#
From the anti war side, I heard:
It's worth remembering that the Buchananites and some pretty nasty
paleos were part of "the anti war side."
Right between ANSWER and Raimondo. Sure was fun being a liberal in
2002. Good times.
|12.15.08 @ 4:48PM|#
You tell those Iraqis who think they know more about their lives
than you do, anonymous internet guy posting safely from the
US!
You tell 'em good!
|12.15.08 @ 5:08PM|#
Reminds me of the old joke about the American and the Soviet
Russian.
American: In my country, I can stand in the middle of the
capital and yell "President Reagan is an idiot!"
Russian: Da, in my country we have same freeedom. I too can
stand in middle of capital and yell "President Reagan is an
idiot!"
While you shouldn't throw shoes at world leaders, it's nice that
Iraqis live in a country where the official penalty is no longer
torture followed by execution. In fact, he'll probably get a
lighter punishment than an American who did the same thing
here.
And for the record, polls from near the height of the violence in
2007 still showed most Iraqis believe removing Saddam was the right
decision, including over 90% of Kurds anda solid majority of Shia.
Only Sunnis (who benefitted under Saddam) argued against it.
TallDave|12.15.08 @ 5:18PM|#
Ha! Saddam was so popular that journalists never threw shoes
at him during press conferences.
Heh. Reminds of the story Eason Jordan told about the Iraqi
cameraman he met in the 1990s who was missing several front teeth.
Apparently the guy had once used an unflattering camera angle on
Udai, who decided to interpose himself into the video editing
process by having his bodyguards knock the cameraman's teeth out
with pliers. He told the cameraman never to get them replaced, so
he would always remember.
CNN, of course, did not report this at the time.
|12.15.08 @ 5:21PM|#
kwais said:
From the anti war side, I heard:
"they have been fighting eachother for thousands of years, it will
never change".
How, exactly, is this racist unless you are severing it from
centuries of imperialism? Could someone please show me a people
anywhere who have _not_ been killing each other for thousands of
years!
Regardless of your viewpoint, but all USers are guilty by
association of killing all across the world.
cunnivore|12.15.08 @ 5:46PM|#
I suspect that if I threw a shoe at you in the US of A, I
would be shortly be sitting at county trying to raise bail on for
assault and attempted battery.
I'm trying to imagine the reaction of the 911 operator when you
call saying that someone threw a shoe at you. "We'll send someone
right now to take that assaulter away in cuffs" isn't coming to
mind for some reason.
|12.15.08 @ 5:51PM|#
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