Iraq Takes Down Shoe Sculpture

The large, shoe-shaped sculpture made to honor an Iraqi journalist’s gesture of defiance against former President Bush was removed from the garden of a Tikrit orphanage just a day after it was put up, CNN reports. The government requested the removal, and sent police to supervise. “We will not allow anyone to use the government buildings for political motives,” said an official.

“Those orphans who helped the sculptor in building this monument were the victims of Bush’s war,” said the director of the orphanage, in defense of the artwork. “The shoe monument is a gift to the next generation to remember the heroic action by the journalist.” (More Iraq stories.)