There was a bit of unfinished business left over in Baghdad from the 1991 Gulf War. The US Army has taken care of it.
At the Al-Rashid Hotel, President Bush senior is no more a doormat.
US soldiers visited the battered Al-Rashid on Thursday night wielding hammers and chisels, and dug out the intricate tile mosaic of the former president that was used for years as a state-sponsored insult.
In its place, they laid a portrait of Saddam Hussein.
“Everybody walked over it and wiped their feet on it,” said Lt-Colonel Rick Schwartz. He left the Hussein portrait behind, on the ground for future use.
Taking shoes to a face is not exactly a compliment in any culture, but in the Arab world it’s a grave insult.
So the notion of thousands of Iraqi feet trudging over the face of George Herbert Walker Bush was particularly appealing to Hussein’s regime, humiliated by Bush during the 1991 Gulf War.
Hussein personally picked the Al-Rashid insult to Bush senior. The hotel regularly housed foreign guests and was the base of operations for journalists during the 1991 war.
{{/usCountry}}Hussein personally picked the Al-Rashid insult to Bush senior. The hotel regularly housed foreign guests and was the base of operations for journalists during the 1991 war.
{{/usCountry}}The mosaic, an unflattering portrait of Bush with his teeth bared, was installed later in 1991 right in the Al-Rashid's doorway complete with a caption in Arabic and English: “Bush is criminal”.
UN Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi stepped on the upper lip and part of the nose in 1997. Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky trod upon the Adam’s apple that same year.
Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter sidestepped it in 1998. And as recently as last November, chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohammed El Baradei had to trudge over a Bush shoulder.