[271] He said he would carefully weigh recommendations from his commanding General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker about how to proceed after the end of the military buildup in the summer of 2008. He also praised the Iraqis' legislative achievements, including a pension law, a revised de-Baathification law, a new budget, an amnesty law, and a provincial powers measure that, he said, set the stage for the Iraqi elections.[272] By July 2008, American troop deaths had reached their lowest number since the war began,[273] and due to increased stability in Iraq, Bush announced the withdrawal of additional American forces.[273] During his last visit to Iraq in December 2008, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at Bush amid an official press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.[274] Al-Zaidi yelled that the shoes were a "farewell kiss" and "for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq".[275]
In March 2010, Center for Public Integrity released a report that President Bush's administration had made more than 900 false pretenses in a two-year period about the alleged threat of Iraq against the United States, as his rationale to engage in war in Iraq.