'This is a Farewell You Dog!' (VIDEO)

Iraqi journalist hurls shoes at President Bush during his final visit to Baghdad.

Iraqi journalist rises to throw shoe at Pres. Bush today in Baghdad. Courtesy: YouTube

(SALEM, Ore.) - An Iraqi journalist in Baghdad drew worldwide attention today when he threw both of his shoes at President George W. Bush during his farewell visit to this nation of conflicting emotions. They missed the President, but not by much.

The man could be heard yelling in Arabic: "This is a farewell ... you dog!" as he was dragged out of the room kicking and screaming.

In this part of the world, just showing the bottom of your shoe or foot is a serious insult as it compares the person being insulted to the lowest thing on earth. Hurling shoes at someone is considered an even bigger insult among Muslims.

The Iraqi man who threw the shoes at Bush was a television reporter. Apparently Spokeswoman Dana Perino ended up with a black eye from the affair.

The man threw the shoes, one after another, each narrowly missing the U.S. President. Bush reportedly said to the audience after the man was removed, "That was a size 10 shoe he threw at me, you may want to know."

The man interrupted Bush's discussion about the conclusion of the security pact with Iraq; a contentious matter with Iraqi's.

"So what if the guy threw his shoe at me?" Bush asked a reporter in response to a question about the incident.

"Let me talk about the guy throwing his shoe. It's one way to gain attention. It's like going to a political rally and having people yell at you. It's like driving down the street and having people not gesturing with all five fingers."

"Apparently President Bush may be a bit more accustomed to single finger gestures than the average American," one Oregon woman said.

Bush added, "It's a way for people to draw attention. I don't know what the guy's cause is. But one thing is for certain. He caused you to ask me a question about it. I didn't feel the least bit threatened by it."

As the United States goes through the final motions of the Iraqi invasion and occupation, it is important to note that in spite of the number of Western media reports lauding the success of the military conflict, most Iraqi people do not see it that way. Most believe that their nation was functional and while seriously flawed, they were able to live for the most part, an average day-to-day life before U.S. intervention.

Since the arrival of U.S. forces, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people have died and a large percentage of those who fight against U.S. and Coalition forces are not people who would have been considered terrorists prior to the current war there.

Most people in Iraq feel the United States has done them no favor in invading and occupying their country. Some, particularly those who work for the U.S. government, have a different view and strongly support the U.S. occupation. These citizens however will likely be in danger at some time in the future as a result of that support.

Here is an AP report via YouTube on the shoe throwing incident in Baghdad today:

Video

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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.
Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 in Afghanistan with Oregon troops. Tim recently returned from Iraq where he covered the war there while embedded with an Oregon Guard aviation unit. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.
You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com