Bush Calls "Mission Accomplished" Sign for Iraq "Mission Impossible"

While Bush's speech was mostly eloquent and free of the language gaffes he admits he is famous for, he said he regretted appearing in front of a "Mission Impossible" sign during a televised address in 2003. The controversial banner referring to the U.S. mission in Iraq, actually said "Mission Accomplished."

Various unions, activist and antiwar groups supported the protest.

Joan Hadrill of the Raging Grannies said she was on the street because Bush was "an alleged war criminal for his invasion of Iraq and torturing prisoners of war."

Immigration lawyer William Sloan blamed Bush for "cynically causing a war that is responsible for so many deaths and so much destruction."

"He set back international law into the 1700s, violating every convention possible and seeming to revel in it," he continued.

Among the main slogan chanters was Jaggi Singh, the Montreal activist who was part of the committee that organized the protest and asked that old shoes be brought, to emulate the Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi who tossed one at Bush during a Baghdad news conference.

Various pieces of footwear were hurled high in the direction of the hotel and the line of riot police, who did not seek to arrest the throwers.