Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, tried to block President Bush when a man threw his shoes at the president during a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday.

There is not a lot of humor coming out of Baghdad these days. So leave it to a surprise visit by our lame duck President Bush to lighten things up. Snuck into Iraq with the secrecy of a Harry Potter sequel plot, the joint press conference deep in the Green Zone with Nouri Al-Maliki would seem to be a safe venue. Yet the moment Bush was introduced to the Baghdad press corps, the shoe leather hit the fan. A local television reporter stood up, shouting “This is a goodbye kiss, you dog.” Well, it sounds a bit more sinister in Arabic. But this was not the sole agenda of the media heckler. He threw both his shoes at Bush, who ducked both. There was a bit of confusion and seemingly no secret service agent paying attention. Bush stood his ground, waving off the double shoeing with a joke that all he knew was that they were size 10.

Well, the good news is that democracy really has come to Iraq, with a press corps so free and comfortable that they can take their shoes off and feel at home. The bad news is what we knew already; not too many Iraqis like our presence there. The shoe was not just thrown at Bush, it was aimed square at his policy which has created an insecure Iraq. Even here deep in the Green Zone there is no safety. What next? A presidential press conference in a nudist colony?

The video commentary on MSNBC is rather humorous as well. At the end of the clip the reporter noted that the reason a shoe was thrown was because that is a serious insult in Arab culture. OK. So, if it were in Washington, it would just be in good fun? Given that these reporters were hopefully frisked, what else could they throw but their shoes? Dirty underwear?

Daniel Martin Varisco