President George W. Bush paid a surprise visit to Iraq on Sunday, where he won praise from the country's government leaders, but was also the target of a shoe-throwing protester.
Bush's visit, his fourth since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, was to mark the successful completion of a security pact with the Iraqi leadership. President Jalal Talabani praised Bush as a "great friend for the Iraqi people" and the man "who helped us to liberate our country and reach this day, which we have democracy, human rights and prosperity gradually in our country."
At a news conference with Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, however, Bush was targeted by an angry Iraqi man who threw shoes at the president as an apparent form of protest. Bush ducked as the shoes sailed past him, and the protester was dragged out of the room.
Throwing shoes or sitting so that the bottom of a show faces another person is considered, among Muslims, to be an insult.
Upon landing at Baghdad International Airport on Sunday, Bush was helicoptered to a meeting with Talabani and his vice presidents at his palace, the first time Bush has been outside the so-called Green Zone, a heavily fortified section of Baghdad.
Bush called the passage of the pact, known as the Strategic Framework Agreement and the Status of Forces Agreement "a way forward to help the Iraqi people realize the blessings of a free society."
Bush said the work "hasn't been easy, but it has been necessary for American security, Iraqi hope, and world peace." The security agreement, which calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011, was negotiated by leaders of the U.S. and Iraq last month. Nearly 150,000 American troops are still stationed in Iraq.
The visit, likely Bush's last as leader of the U.S. government, comes just over one month before he turns over the White House and the war to President Elect Barack Obama.
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