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President George W. Bush ducked two shoes thrown at him by an unidentified man during a press conference in the Iraqi prime minister's office.
Bush wasn't hit by the shoes, one of which sailed over his head. The president shrugged and said "I'm OK" after the incident in Baghdad today. "All I can report is it is a size 10," Bush said.
In Arab culture, throwing shoes is a grave show of disrespect. The man shouted an Arabic phrase, which an Iraqi present said translated as "this is a farewell kiss, dog."
After U.S. troops pulled down a statue of former dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraqi bystanders tossed shoes at it, according to news reports at the time.
The man threw the shoes from about 25 feet away as Bush, with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, made formal remarks before the signing of an Iraqi-U.S. security agreement. Bush arrived today in Baghdad on a surprise visit.
The shoe-thrower, who was in a group of journalists, was wrestled to the ground and taken away.
"It doesn't bother me," Bush told reporters. "So what if he threw a shoe at me." The president said it showed free speech in a democracy. Maliki said nothing about the incident, after which the two leaders signed the agreement.
At the signing ceremony, Bush said a free and democratic Iraq will now become "a force for freedom" and a "source of stability in a volatile region."
"There is still more work to be done," Bush said. "The war is not over." The president said that with the agreement, "and the courage of the Iraqi people, and the Iraqi troops, and American troops and civilian personnel, it is decisively on its way to being won."
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