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By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven, Ap White House
Correspondent Sun Dec 14, 5:37 pm ET
BAGHDAD On an Iraq trip shrouded in secrecy and marred by dissent, President
George W. Bush on Sunday hailed progress in the war that defines his presidency
and got a size-10 reminder of his unpopularity when a man hurled two shoes at
him during a news conference.
"This is a farewell kiss, you dog!" shouted the protester in Arabic, 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.
"It was a size 10," Bush joked later.
The U.S. president visited the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the
war off to his successor, 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.
"The war is not over," Bush said, adding that "it is decisively on it's way to
being won."
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.
Polls show most Americans believe the U.S. erred in invading Iraq in 2003. Bush
ordered the nation into war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq while citing
intelligence claiming the Mideast nation harbored weapons of mass destruction.
The weapons were never found, the intelligence was discredited, Bush's
credibility with U.S. voters plummeted and Saddam was captured and executed.
"There is still more work to be done," Bush said after his meeting with Iraqi
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
It was at that point the journalist stood up and threw a shoe from about 20
feet away. 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 with their shoes after U.S. marines toppled it to
the ground following the 2003 invasion.
White House press secretary Dana Perino suffered an eye injury in the news
conference melee. Bush brushed off the incident, comparing it to political
protests at home.
"So what if I guy threw his shoe at me?" he said.
Al-Maliki, who spoke before the incident, praised postwar progress: "Today,
Iraq is moving forward in every field."
After the news conference, the president took a 15-minute helicopter ride
through dark skies over Baghdad to Camp Victory. Telling hundreds of troops he
was "heading into retirement," Bush blamed Saddam for the 2003 invasion and
said, "America is safer and more secure" than it was before the war.
For Bush, the war is the issue around which both he and the country defined his
two terms in office. He saw the invasion and continuing fight as a necessary
action to protect Americans and fight terrorism. Though his decision won
support at first, the public now has largely decided that the U.S. needs to get
out of Iraq.
Air Force One, the president's distinctive powder blue-and-white jetliner,
landed at Baghdad International Airport in the afternoon local time after a
secretive Saturday night departure from Washington. In a sign of security gains
in this war zone, Bush received a formal arrival ceremony a flourish absent
in his three earlier trips.
Bush soon began a rapid-fire series of meetings with top Iraqi leaders.
He met first with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the country's two vice
presidents, Tariq al-Hashemi and Adel Abdul-Mahdi, at the ornate,
marble-floored Salam Palace along the shores of the Tigris River.
Later, Bush's motorcade pulled out the heavily fortified Green Zone and crossed
over the Tigris so he could meet al-Maliki at the prime minister's palace. A
huge orange moon hung low over the horizon as Bush's was ferried quickly
through the city.
The two leaders signed ceremonial copy of the security agreement.
The Bush administration and even White House critics credit last year's
military buildup with the security gains in Iraq. Last month, attacks fell to
the lowest monthly level since the war began in 2003.
Still, it's unclear what will happen when the U.S. troops leave. While violence
has slowed in Iraq, attacks continue, especially in the north. At least 55
people were killed Thursday in a suicide bombing in a restaurant near Kirkuk.
It was Bush's last trip to the war zone before Obama takes office Jan. 20.
Obama won an election largely viewed as a referendum on Bush, who has endured
low approval ratings because of the war and more recently, the U.S. recession.
Obama, a Democrat, has promised he will bring all U.S. combat troops back home
from Iraq a little over a year into his term, as long as commanders agree a
withdrawal would not endanger American personnel or Iraq's security. Obama has
said the drawdown in Iraq would allow him to shift troops and bolster the U.S.
presence in Afghanistan.
The new U.S.-Iraqi security pact, calls for all American troops to be withdrawn
by the end of 2011, in two stages. The first stage begins next year, when U.S.
troops pull back from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities by the end of June. Gen.
Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Saturday that even after
that summer deadline, some U.S. troops will remain in Iraqi cities.
Journalists and staff who made the 10 1/2-hour trip to Iraq with the president
agreed to tell almost no one about the plans, and the White House released
false schedules detailing activities planned for Bush in Washington on Sunday.