This is not a big deal?

President Ahmadinejad will be going to visit Iraq in March. That would be the same Ahmadinejad that caused a tremendous uproar when he visited the United States. The “madman”. He’s soon traveling to Baghdad, the heart of US occupied territory. No doubt US military personnel will escort him and provide his security. He’s perfectly safe. It’s not a big deal.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran will make a landmark visit to Iraq on March 2, the first trip ever made by an Iranian leader to Iraq, the government here said Thursday.

Ahmadinejad will meet with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani of Iraq during his two-day visit, a government spokesman said. “The two countries will discuss bilateral relations and joint projects,” said the spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh.

The White House expressed its support Thursday for good relations between Iraq and Iran after the announcement was made, but also urged Tehran to stop backing militants in Iraq.

Ahmadinejad’s trip was announced last month but Iraqi officials only made the date public on Thursday.

Also Thursday, officials said Iran had postponed the next session of expert-level talks on security with U.S. diplomats. The announcement of Ahmadinejad’s visit came soon afterward.

Hmm. It’s almost like everybody’s on the same page. Maybe my crazy theory from the other day isn’t so crazy after all.

The response from Washington was measured. “We want Iran and Iraq to have good relations,” Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said in a statement. “The fastest way for that to happen is for Iran to stop supporting extremists in Iraq who kill innocent Iraqis and Americans.”

The United States has accused Iran of training and supplying Shiite militia fighters with weapons and explosives in Iraq. Iran denies the accusations.

A State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said the United States did not see Ahmadinejad’s visit to Iraq as a provocative gesture but he hoped the message would be positive.

“We would look for Iran to play a positive role in Iraq’s present as well as its future,” McCormack said. “I know that in the past, Iraqi officials have talked to the Iranian government about playing a more positive role.”

You know that this magnanimous response can only mean one thing: Bush and Cheney approve. It must be part of the plan for Iran and Iraq to merge together. Look again at the Map of the New Middle East. Iran lies at the heart of it, and Iraq has been partitioned. The Persian Gulf is basically under Shia control.

I’m no expert, but what the hell other conclusion can one draw here? Stuff like this just goes to show that human suffering means nothing to Bush/Cheney. All the outrage about Iran? Fake. All these innocent people have been killed and lives ruined in order to redraw the map more to the neocons’ liking.

UPDATE: Iran’s Oil Bourse will open February 27, 2008, just days before Ahmadinejad goes to visit Iraq, a visit the US finds totally unprovocative.

The minister said his country’s oil revenue will reach $63 billion by the end of this Iranian year, which ends on March 20.

He said oil sales reached $55 billion in the first 11 months of the year, and that “if crude prices stand at the current level, next year’s oil revenues will be the same as this year.”

Nozari announced last week that Iran’s crude oil production had reached 4.184 million barrels per day, the highest level since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Big numbers. Very profitable.