BAGHDAD — He waited five long years. Then, with cameras rolling and the world watching, he took his chance.
“This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog!” Muntazer al-Zaidi shouted as he hurled his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad on 14 December 2008.
Bush ducked. Twice. The room erupted into chaos. Al-Zaidi was tackled and dragged away. What followed, he says, was beatings, solitary confinement, and a prison sentence. But 15 years later, he doesn’t flinch.
“My only regret,” he said in a recent interview, “is that I only had two shoes.”
Al-Zaidi, now 44, has become a symbol of protest in Iraq. Loved by some, dismissed by others, he remains unrepentant about his act of defiance. “Even knowing what I’d go through, I’d do it again,” he said, his voice calm but firm.
The Protest That Echoed Across the Arab World
Al-Zaidi, then a correspondent for an Iraqi TV station, had followed the U.S. invasion of his country from day one. As bombs fell over Baghdad in March 2003, he remembers the silence that gripped the capital.
“People were like zombies,” he said. “They weren’t alive, not really. Just waiting.”
Like many Iraqis, he was angered by the destruction, the thousands of civilian deaths, and the political collapse that followed. But it was the words of Bush — that Iraqis would welcome American troops with flowers — that stuck with him.
“I wanted to show the world that Iraqis do not greet occupiers with roses,” he said. “I had to do something.”
So when Bush stood beside Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, al-Zaidi took his chance. “It wasn’t impulsive,” he insisted. “I was waiting for that moment.”
From Courtroom to Prison Cell
The backlash came fast. He was arrested on the spot, sentenced to three years in prison, and jailed under harsh conditions. He served just nine months but says he was tortured for the first three days and spent weeks in solitary confinement.
“There was a rumour I had apologised,” he recalled. “But I told the investigator: if time went backwards, I’d still throw both shoes.”
Photos of him blindfolded were passed around, he said, allegedly shared with U.S. authorities. Despite the trauma, many Iraqis rallied behind him. For them, he had voiced what they felt — rage, grief, humiliation.
A Nation Still Reeling
Two decades on from the invasion, Iraq remains fragile. The war officially ended in 2011, but political instability, sectarian violence, and foreign interference continue to plague the country.
“No one has been held accountable,” al-Zaidi said. “Our infrastructure is broken. Corruption runs deep. Every party has its own armed wing. People disappear, protesters get killed. This is what the occupation left behind.”
While U.S. officials once insisted the war was necessary to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, none were ever found. And the long-term costs — in lives, trust, and stability — continue to mount.
Al-Zaidi points to stalled reforms and the fragmentation of Iraqi politics as lasting scars. “We got rid of Saddam, yes,” he said. “But we inherited a new kind of chaos.”
Still on the Streets
After years abroad, al-Zaidi returned home. He joined Iraq’s growing protest movement — young people calling for an end to corruption and foreign influence.
“We want to reclaim our future,” he said. “Iraqis are still suffering, but we won’t stop. We’ve lost so much already. We can’t afford to lose hope too.”
In 2018, he ran for parliament, but failed to win a seat. Still, he remains active in civil society, rallying for political change and better governance.
“Everything that’s happened — all the blood, the betrayal, the pain — it’s not over,” he said. “But I believe Iraq will rise. And this time, we’ll decide what it becomes.”
