The Emperor is going out in style - the same blind, self-backpatting style he started with. This weekend he snuck into Iraq to declare, "The war is not over...[but]...it is decisively on it's way to being won." An Iraqi threw shoes at his head. (video)
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 the end!" shouted the protester, 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.
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In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of contempt.
Mr al-Zeidi was immediately airlifted to a special CIA camp in Turkmenistan for re-education. Meanwhile "[a]t least 55 people were killed Thursday in a suicide bombing in a restaurant near Kirkuk."
This is by actual count the 113th time that Bush has declared victory since the invasion five years ago. One of these days I suppose (hope) it will be true.
But not today.
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