BAGHDAD, IRAQ -- President George W. Bush's trip to Baghdad was supposed to underscore recent progress in Iraq, and mark the conclusion of a long-term security deal between the United States and Iraq. But with a well-aimed pair of loafers, an Iraqi journalist Muntader al-Zaidi managed to upstage the president's tightly scripted visit.The shoe-heard-around-the-world is particularly ironic, because of the absolutely massive security operation surrounding Bush's trip here. On the day of the president's visit, U.S. and Iraqi troops were out in force, and patrols were stepped up in Baghdad's Sadr City to block any potential attacks against the International Zone, where the president and his entourage would visit.
Earlier this year, Sadr City served as the launching point for a wave of rocket and mortar attacks against the IZ (a.k.a. the Green Zone). U.S. and Iraqi forces reclaimed the southern quadrant of Sadr City in a brutal street-by-street fight; while that battle raged, combat engineers built a concrete security wall that effectively pushed insurgent rocket teams beyond the range of the Green Zone. After a cease-fire was concluded, Iraqi Army units were able to take up checkpoints inside the rest of Sadr City.
Still, forces were on high alert. I accompanied Lt. Col. Michael Pemrick, deputy commander of the Third Brigade Combat Team, Fourth Infantry Division, as he inspected the Iraqi Army checkpoints near the security wall. He also stopped outside a few shops to chat with some young men hanging out on the sidewalk: How's security in the neighborhood? Do you have any community workers around here? Did you watch the game last night -- Barcelona-Madrid?
"You used to hear a lot of noises around Sadr City -- a lot of stuff blowing up," he told them. "You don't hear that anymore."
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