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. “The war is not over,” Bush said, adding that “it is decisively on its way to being won.” In many ways, the unannounced trip was a victory lap without a clear victory. Nearly 150,000 US troops remain in Iraq fighting a war that is intensely disliked across the globe. More than 4,209 members of the US military have died in the conflict, which has cost US taxpayers $576 billion since it began five years and nine months ago. “This is a farewell kiss, you dog!” shouted the protester in Arabic, later identified as Muntadar Al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadiya 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. “Don't worry about it,” the president said as the room erupted into chaos. “It was a size 10,” Bush joked later. “So what if I guy threw his shoe at me?” he said. Bush brushed off the incident, comparing it to political protests at home. Bush visited the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the war off to his successor, Barack Obama. The president wanted to highlight a drop in violence in a nation still riven by ethnic strife and to celebrate a recent US-Iraq security agreement, which calls for US troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011. “There is still more work to be done,” Bush said after his meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri 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 US marines toppled it to the ground following the 2003 invasion. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino suffered an eye injury in the melee. 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.
