Bush, The Iraq War and Size 10 Shoes

President George W. Bush was at a news conference in Iraq to highlight on the work to be done after the Iraw Warwhen he had a pair of reportedly size 10 shoes thrown at him by a journalist from an Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt. In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a big insult. This was Bush's last trip to the war zones before Obama takes office 20th January.

The following is extracted from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081215/ap_on_re_as/bush;_ylt=AtLbxmQKAgTD.BbXwE8Rw8LXn414

KABUL, Afghanistan – On a whirlwind trip shrouded in secrecy and marred by dissent, President George W. Bush on Sunday hailed progress in the wars that define his presidency and got a size-10 reminder of his unpopularity when a man hurled two shoes at him during a news conference in Iraq.

"This is your farewell kiss, you dog!" shouted the protester in Arabic, later identified as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt. "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."

Bush ducked both shoes as they whizzed past his head and landed with a thud against the wall behind him.

"It was a size 10," Bush joked later.

The U.S. president visited the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the war off to his successor, Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it. The president wanted to highlight a drop in violence and to celebrate a recent U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

"The war is not over," Bush said, but "it is decisively on it's way to being won."

Bush then flew overnight to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan for a rally early Monday with more than 1,000 U.S. and foreign troops. "Afghanistan is a dramatically different country than it was eight years ago," he said. "We are making hopeful gains."

He then took a helicopter ride to Kabul to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

After their meeting, Bush said he told Karzai: "You can count on the United States. Just like you've been able to count on this administration, you'll be able to count on the next administration as well."

The president was then leaving Afghanistan to fly to Britain, stopping to refuel and then continue home.

In many ways, the unannounced trip was a victory lap without a clear victory.

In Iraq, nearly 150,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, protecting the fragile democracy. More than 4,209 members of the U.S. military have died and $576 billion has been spent since the war began five years and nine months ago.

In Afghanistan, there are about 31,000 U.S. troops and commanders have called for up to 20,000 more. The fight is especially difficult in southern Afghanistan, a stronghold of the Taliban where violence has risen sharply this year.

Polls show most Americans believe the U.S. erred in invading Iraq in 2003. Bush ordered the nation into war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq while citing intelligence claiming the Mideast nation harbored weapons of mass destruction. The weapons were never found, the intelligence was discredited, and Bush's credibility with U.S. voters plummeted.