Bush Booted Out!!

President Bush made a surprise last trip to Iraq on Sunday. He and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed a ceremonial copy of a U.S.-Iraq security agreement.

The president highlighted a drop in violence and to celebrate U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

President Bush staunchly defended a war that has taken far more time, money and lives than anticipated, but he received a taste of local resentment toward his policies when an Iraqi journalist hurled two shoes at him at a news conference.

Just after Bush finished his remarks and said "Thank you" in Arabic, an Iraqi journalist took off his shoes and threw them at Bush, one after the other.

Throwing a shoe at someone is considered the worst possible insult in the Middle East and is meant to show extreme disrespect and contempt.

The man, identified as Muntadar al-Zaidi, a reporter with the Cairo-based al-Baghdadia television network, yelled in Arabic as he threw the first shoe. Bush ducked and narrowly missed being hit.

Bush escaped injuries and instead joked about the incident minutes later and said "If you want the facts, it's a size 10 shoe that he threw. Thank you for your concern; do not worry about it."

Freedom of expression

Hundreds of Iraqis joined anti-US demonstrations to protest at Bush's farewell visit on Sunday to Iraq.

Mr. Zaidi risks a minimum of two years in prison if he is prosecuted for insulting a visiting head of state.

In Libya, a charity headed by Moamer Kadhafi's daughter Aisha announced it was going to award Zaidi an "order of courage" for his actions and in Lebanon, the Shiite militant group Hezbollah said the journalist should be regarded as a hero.

But everyone must realize that Mr. Zaidi’s new found freedom of expression was due only to the White House foreign policy and if he had tried shoeing President Saddam before the invasion, he and his extended family would all have been murdered without any trace!