Word: iraqi
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When the next history of Iraq is written, the chapter on the stormy years following the U.S. invasion will be bookended by two iconic images: one of elated Iraqis in Firdos Square in 2003 raining their loafers and boots on a fallen statue of Saddam Hussein, and the other of President George W. Bush ducking flying footwear at a 2008 Baghdad press conference during the last official visit of his term. In many Eastern cultures, hurling a shoe at someone is a grave insult. Iraqi TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi's decision to fling his size 10s made...
...didn't know what the guy said, but I saw his sole.' GEORGE W. BUSH, alluding to his memorable comment about meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, after an Iraqi journalist hurled a pair of shoes...
...clichéd gesture to hurl shoes at a poster, a flag or a statue during demonstrations in the Arab world. Perhaps the most iconic example was when U.S. troops helped bring down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdous Square on April 9, 2003. Hundreds of Iraqis assailed the giant metal corpse, beating it with their shoes in one of the defining images of the fall of Baghdad. How ironic then that President Bush's farewell trip to Iraq will be marked by the image of an angry Iraqi and his shoes. (See pictures of the fall...
...Iraqi television journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi hurled a verbal insult at Bush as well as his footwear. "This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog," he shouted as he threw the first of his projectiles. Seconds later, he hurled another, saying "this is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq," before being wrestled to the ground by security guards and removed from the room. Little has emerged about the journalist, a correspondent for al-Baghdadiya, a satellite TV channel that broadcasts from Cairo. According to some reports...
...Zaidi was pummeled and kicked by the guards who dragged him out of the conference area. Other Iraqi journalists in the hall were apologetic to the U.S. President and the Americans. Still, Iraqis who despise the U.S. leader for waging war on their country will no doubt applaud al-Zaidi's rapid-fire gesture. On Monday, demonstrators rallied in support of the Shi'ite journalist in Baghdad's Sadr City slum and also in the southern Shi'ite bastions of Basra and Najaf. Already jokes are going around that shoe companies are now offering the assailant a lifetime supply...