Bush tries to put shoe on other foot

US PRESIDENT BUSH wrapped up a whirlwind trip to two war zones yesterday that in many ways was a victory lap without a clear victory.

A signature event occurred when an Iraqi reporter hurled two shoes at Bush, an incident the president called “a bizarre moment”.

Bush then travelled on to Afghanistan where he spoke to US soldiers and marines at a hangar on the tarmac at Bagram Air Base.

Bush told reporters later that he didn’t think “you can take one guy throwing shoes and say this represents a broad movement in Iraq. You can try to do that if you want but I don’t think that would be accurate”.

Talking to a small group of reporters, Bush said, “I didn’t know what the guy said, but I saw his sole.”

He told the reporters that “you were more concerned than I was. I was watching your faces.

“I’m pretty good at ducking, as most of you know,” Bush joked, adding quickly that “I’m talking about ducking your questions.”

White House press secretary Dana Perino suffered an eye injury when she was hit in the face with a microphone during the melee. But Mr Bush brushed off the incident. “So what if a guy threw his shoe at me?”

After the news conference, the president took a 15-minute helicopter ride through dark skies over Baghdad to Camp Victory. Telling hundreds of troops he was “heading into retirement”, he blamed Saddam for the 2003 invasion and said America was safer and more secure than it was before the war.