As U.S. Troops Leave for Good, Biden Visits Iraq

[Gerald]

BAGHDAD — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. arrived here on Tuesday for a historic visit meant to inaugurate a new relationship between the United States and Iraq, just weeks before the last American troops are scheduled to leave the country. Landing after nightfall in a military transport plane, a mode of arrival that American officials hope will soon seem like a relic of a distant era, Mr. Biden came with an agenda that included new areas of cooperation in trade and diplomacy, as well as traditional security concerns. Mr. Biden’s unannounced trip to Iraq is laden with symbolism — a farewell to arms, but also a call for two countries linked by bloodshed to begin dealing with one other in the normal language of diplomacy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/wo...s.html?_r=1&hp

Note: November 29, 2011