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It’s a sign of a free society: Bush

KABUL: It will likely rank as one of the more bizarre episodes of his presidency — George W. Bush, surely one of the most protected leaders in history, ducking as two size 10 shoes hurtled in his direction.

The U.S. President laughed off the incident during a visit to Iraq, though it highlighted the lingering hostility still felt toward the man who ordered the 2003 invasion.

“I didn’t know what the guy said, but I saw his sole,” quipped Mr. Bush, not the first — and he won’t be the last — to rack up a shoe pun. The footwear belonged to an Iraqi television journalist, Muntazer al-Zaidi, who jumped up as Mr. Bush was holding a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

“It is the farewell kiss, you dog,” he shouted, and threw the shoes before being wrestled to the ground by security guards and frogmarched out. Mr. Bush lowered his head and the first shoe hit the American and Iraqi flags behind the two leaders. The second was off target.

Soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture — after Saddam Hussein’s statue was toppled in Baghdad in April 2003, many people beat its face with their soles. “It doesn’t bother me,” said Mr. Bush of the incident. “If you want the facts, it was a size 10 shoe that he threw,” he added.

The agile American leader downplayed the incident, saying “it’s a sign of a free society.”

Mr. Bush, who ducked both throws, said he has seen a lot of weird things during his eight-year-long presidency and that he would term the latest incident as “one of the weirdest.”

“But I’m not insulted. I don’t hold it against the government. I don’t think the Iraqi press corps as a whole is terrible. And so, the guy wanted to get on TV and he did. I don’t know what his beef is. But whatever it is I’m sure somebody will hear it,” he added. Mr. Bush then flew to Afghanistan.

So when he landed in Kabul for talks and a news conference with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, the buzz among reporters was whether more footwear would fly.

It didn’t. Many journalists, however, had not heard or seen of the incident just a few hours earlier.

And while security is always tight at Mr. Karzai’s palace, where visitors have to undergo a number of checks, no one’s shoes were examined this time.

Meanwhile Al-Baghdadia, the television channel that employs Mr. Zaidi, urged authorities to release him immediately “in line with the democracy and freedom of expression that the American authorities promised the Iraqi people.”

In Cairo, programming director Muzhir al-Khafaji described Mr. Zaidi as a “proud Arab and an open-minded man.” — Agencies.

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