Maka tersebutlah kisah di bulan Disember yang penuh peristiwa bersejarah dunia, seorang wartawan Iraq, Muntazer Al-Zaidi melemparkan kasut ke arah Presiden Amerika, George Bush dalam satu sidang akhbar bersama Perdana Menteri Iraq, Nouri Al-Maliki di Baghdad pada 14 Disember, tarikh Bush dimalukan dengan sepasang kasut.
Walaupun Bush terselamat dalam insiden itu, namun kasut itulah yang meyebabkannya satu dunia menghina dan memalukannya.
Muntazer ditangkap dan bakal didakwa kerana kesalahan menghina seorang pemimpin negara asing.
Beliau tidak menyesali tindakannya itu malah dianggap sebagai hero oleh masyarakat Arab kerana berjaya memalukan Bush yang banyak melakukan jenayah kemanusiaan di rantau itu. Ada yang mahu menjadikannya menantu kerana tertarik dengan keberaniannya. Tidak kurang juga yang berdemonstrasi membawa kasut di tangan bagi menyatakan sokongan terhadap tindakan Muntazer.
The week after the shoe-throwing incident, Ramazan Baydan, the Turkish shoemaker who manufactures the shoes thrown at Bush, reported that orders for his Model 271 brogues had skyrocketed. To fill the approximately 300,000 orders received from people around the world, Baydan hired an extra 100 staff.
Although throwing a shoe is rude in any culture, thrown shoes hold a particular significance in some Arab cultures. Shoes are generally taken off before entering a home and are considered very dirty. So to hit someone with a sole of a shoe is to insult and debase another person by equating them with the dirt and filth on the bottom of a shoe.
During the fall of Baghdad in 2003, those who tore down the statue of Saddam Hussein slapped the statue's face with their shoes.
"Thanks for apologizing on behalf of the Iraqi people. It doesn't bother me. If you want the facts, it was a size 10 shoe that he threw." — President George W. Bush
"It is the farewell kiss, you dog." — Shoe-thrower Muntazer al-Zaidi
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