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ALINA CHO:
It happened in Baghdad today. President Bush showed
up for an unannounced farewell visit, but much like
the war in Iraq itself, things didn't go exactly the
way they were planned.
CNN's Michael Ware is in Baghdad. I talked to him
just a few minutes ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: So, Michael, you may not like President Bush's
politics, but one thing you can say for sure is that
the man has great reflexes. So tell us what happened.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely!
Absolutely. Talk about reinventing duck and cover.
Okay, what happened here today is during the
president's surprise visit, he has a press conference
this evening, local time, with the Iraqi Prime
Minister, Nouri al Maliki. Now, then the most
extraordinary scenes took place. While President Bush
was talking, an Iraqi journalist for a television
network here stood up and threw his shoes -- first
one, then the other -- at President Bush, narrowly
missing his head and there we see the reflexes of the
president.
After this, obviously, Secret Service and others jump
on this guy and drag him out, still screaming, having
called President Bush a dog and saying that, you
know, this is your farewell, so to speak. We then saw
President Bush, maintaining his composure, actually
try to turn the incident to his advantage, brushing
the moment aside. And this is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: So
what if the guy threw a shoe at me?
(INAUDIBLE)
BUSH: Right. No, I consider it an important step in -
on the road toward an Iraq that can sustain itself,
govern itself, and defend itself. But let me talk
about the guy throwing the shoe. It is one way to
gain attention. It's like going to a political rally
and having people yell at you. It's like driving down
the street and have people not gesturing with all
five fingers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARE: So that's how President Bush tried to handle
this rather delicate situation. And bear in mind that
in Iraqi culture, throwing a shoe is close to the
ultimate insult, normally reserved for things like
the statue of Saddam Hussein, during the invasion
when it was pulled down, the Iraqis slapped it. And
then we saw shoes thrown in an effigy of President
Bush just a couple of weeks ago in a rally, perhaps
prophetic, -- Alina.
CHO: Well, at least he was able to joke about it. And
he did by the way say, Michael, that it was a size
ten shoe. Now I don't know if he was serious about
that. But let's get on to business now. This is the
president's fourth trip to Iraq since the war began.
Clearly is going to be his farewell trip. This was
his first time outside the heavily fortified Green
Zone. What was on the schedule today?
WARE: Well, actually, it's his first time outside of
a U.S. military base. So this was a unique trip in
many regards. Indeed, when he went and met the
president of Iraq, he was outside the Green Zone
itself, across the river, so technically in the Red
Zone, which we've only seen someone like the Iranian
president do.
What's been on the agenda? First, the president has
said that he was here to thank the troops for their
ongoing service. He was also here to celebrate the
striking of this deal between Baghdad and Washington
that all but ends the American phase of the war here
in Iraq. This is the beginning of the American end.
This agreement dictates that America must be out in
three years, it governs the new rules here, and
President Bush has been hailing that as a success,
even though some of his officials here on the ground
don't see it as an success at all -- Alina.
CHO: Michael, as always, colorful commentary,
colorful reporting. We thank you for joining us.
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ALINA CHO:
Welcome back, everybody. I'm Alina Cho in for
Fredricka Whitfield this hour. You're in the CNN
NEWSROOM. President Bush has left Iraq following an
unannounced farewell visit today. The president
declared that the war in Iraq is on its way to being
won, but an incident that disrupted a news conference
today showed how much controversy the Iraq war
continues to generate.
A man threw two shoes at the president before
security officers dragged him away. CNN's Michael
Ware joins us now from Baghdad. So as I was saying
earlier, Michael, may not like his policies, but
certainly the man has great reflexes, doesn't he?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely. I
mean, he moved like a cat. And it was just so --
actually, he moved like a boxer, the way he just
shifted out of the way and the thing whizzed past his
head. Something to say about this incident, the man
who threw this is actually an Iraqi journalist,
working for an Iraqi television network. And it
appears he became so outraged at something that he
threw these shoes, hurled them at President Bush's
head.
Now, not only is that obviously a statement that
translates into any language in terms of the
frustration and the pent-up anger here in Iraq about
the occupation, but in this part of the world, in
this country, it's the height of insult to throw your
shoe at someone. I mean, it's beyond imagination to
convey this to the non-Arab world.
Normally, such an insult is only reserved for the
most despised, like after the invasion when the
statue of Saddam was pulled down and the Iraqis leapt
upon it and slapped it with their shoes. Or we just
saw it a few weeks ago when tens of thousands of
Iraqi took to the streets in an anti-American
demonstration and took off their shoes and hurled
them at what? An effigy of President Bush, perhaps
somewhat prophetic -- Alina.
CHO: I want to get to what the -- just incredible. I
want to get to what the president was actually doing
there today, because his fourth and final trip to
Iraq as president since the war began. He was outside
the Green Zone today. He did a lot, including sort of
celebrating a security pact that was recently signed.
What's the significance of that? And what --
practically speaking, what will that do?
WARE: Oh, look, this is going to do enormous things.
I mean, unfortunately, this incident of the
shoe-throwing is going to become an icon of the war
in Iraq. People are going to remember this forever
and it overshadows all the other purposes of
President Bush's fourth visit here to the country.
Now, foremost, he wanted to thank the troops for
their ongoing service. But as he himself says, he
wanted to celebrate these new agreements between
Washington and Baghdad.
Now, these agreements, effectively, are the beginning
of the end of America's war here in Iraq.
President-elect Obama campaigned on ending the war,
but the Bush administration has already cut the peace
deal, has already struck the agreement. Now, under
the agreement, U.S. forces have to be off Iraqi soil
within three years. No negotiation, no question, no
extensions. You're gone, is the Iraqi position, and
that's in this internationally-binding agreement.
Now, also, we have the U.S. forces here on the
ground, still more than 130,000 of them, under this
agreement, they don't operate as U.S. forces as much
anymore. Everything they do, any combat operation,
they have to go and coordinate with the Iraqi
government. To search a house looking for Iranian
Quds force officers who are killing Americans, they
have to go and get an Iraqi judge to give them a
warrant.
So, this wraps the American military up in
operational knots. So, in so many ways, by signing
this agreement, America has surrendered much of its
capacity to wage war here in Iraq. Indeed, many
officials in the mission here on the ground, both
military and diplomatic, have said, more than 4,000
deaths, the expenditure of so much treasure from
American taxpayers and for what, for this agreement?
It does not preserve American interests, according to
these people here on the ground working for President
Bush himself, Alina.
CHO: Michael, so interesting, your insight into all
of this, but I do want to talk about what you alluded
to earlier, which is that this shoe-throwing
incident, really, is likely to overshadow...
WARE: Yeah.
CHO: ... so much of sort of the practical work that
they're trying to do in Iraq. And I want to get to
the president's reaction, what he said. I mean, he
really joked about it. And let's listen to his
reaction. You can react on the other side, Michael.
I believe we have that reaction from the president.
There we go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH, UNITED STATES: So what if a guy
threw his shoe at me? I consider it an important step
on the road toward an Iraq that can sustain itself,
govern itself, and defend itself. But let me talk
about the guy throwing the shoe. It is one way to
gain attention. It's like going to a political rally
and having people yell at you. It's like driving down
the street and have people not gesturing with all
five fingers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: You got to hand it to him. He did take it well,
didn't he, Michael?
WARE: Yeah, he did. You really do have to give it to
President Bush. He didn't lose his composure, he
moved like an athlete, and then he tried to turn the
situation around by making this rather embarrassing
incident a positive by citing it as an example, as
you heard him say, essentially, of free speech and
the forward march of the democratic process here. But
that's, I'm sorry, it's just simply outweighed by the
resonance of this statement.
I mean, apart from the theatrical drama of a
journalist standing up and physically hurling his
shoes at the head of the most powerful
commander-in-chief in the world, the leader of the
free world, it's the statement that it says to Arabs.
It's an expression of how Iraqis or a large section
of the community are feeling and it will play so
acutely in the Arab world.
Through one journalist, it's -- you know, the
feelings of so many have been expressed. And indeed,
you have to point out that perhaps in a much more
muted way, it's also the feelings of so many
Americans, given the fact that President-elect Obama
was brought to power with such an enormous mandate
from the American people themselves, Alina.
CHO: Michael Ware, our man in Baghdad. Michael, as
always, thank you. Great to see you.
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DON LEMON:
Good evening, everyone. We have seen President Bush
in all sorts of situations and some really tough
spots, but never anything like this before.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (YELLING IN ARABIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Look at that. The President of the United
States dodging a shoe thrown by an Iraqi reporter
launched straight at his head, and then another one
before the Secret Service and other reporters tackled
him.
CNN's Michael Ware, live in Baghdad.
Michael, President Bush is now in Afghanistan, but do
we know what provoked this bizarre incident earlier
in Baghdad?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, at
this stage, all we have is what you see. The man just
stands up and starts hurling his shoes at the head of
the president of the United States of America. We now
have his network, an Iraqi television network calling
for his immediate release. And we're waiting for dawn
to get the reaction of Iraq's people, all of this
obviously happening overnight.
But if what's on the screen with his station is any
guide, it's going to be interesting. They've
currently got his picture up on the screen
permanently, demands for his release while they're
scrolling pro-Iraqi nationalist film clips. So, this
has obviously evoked a lot of emotion. We'll just
have to see what the Iraqis have to say about it,
Don.
LEMON: CNN's Michael Ware in Baghdad. Michael, thank
you very much.