Your Black Politics: Bush Attacked in Iraq
President Bush made a farewell visit Sunday to Baghdad, Iraq, where he met with Iraqi leaders and was targeted by an angry Iraqi man, who jumped up and threw shoes at Bush during a news conference.
President Bush, left, ducks a thrown shoe as Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki tries to protect him Sunday.
Among Muslims, throwing shoes at someone, or sitting so that the bottom of a shoe faces another person, is considered an insult.
The man was dragged out screaming after throwing the shoes. Bush ducked, and the shoes, thrown one at a time, sailed past his head during the news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in his palace in the heavily fortified Green Zone.
As the man continued to scream from another room, Bush said: “That was a size 10 shoe he threw at me, you may want to know.”
Bush had been lauding the conclusion of the security pact with Iraq as journalists looked on.
