The Emperor's shoes

King George has not been content to spend his last days on the throne spinning out ridiculous fables claiming that his Iraq "mission" really was accomplished after all. He had to add insult to incalculable injury with a surprise visit to that poor, throttled country. I suppose he thought he had one more chance to gloss over his mad war.

So he went into the US fortress in Baghdad known as the Green Zone to join President Jalal Talabani at the podium.

That 's when enemy fire came in. Not just one shoe. Two shoes. A sign of absolute disdain.

Bush nimbly dodged both shoes. But they landed smack dab on the front page of countless newspapers and web sites around the world. His ridiculous fables were knocked out of circulation by a pair of shoes.

And coming out of his duck, the Decider remained accused:

* 4,209 US troops have been killed in Iraq
* Very possibly as many as 1.2 million Iraqis have been killed
* About 150,000 US troops are still there (though not for long now)
* The attack on and occupation of Iraq have given birth to waves of budding new terrorists.
* Iraq is nothing like the new democracy that Bush predicted. It is in second place among the most corrupt countries in the world--tied with Myanmar and very close to the worst of all, Somalia.

Bush accomplished the mission. Oh yes, he sure did. And the world is flat.