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Iran calls on US to quit Iraq 03 Mar 2008 The Iranian president, on a landmark visit to neighbouring Iraq, has called for US troops' withdrawal from the war-torn nation, saying that the country will "live in peace" without them.

 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the call on Monday while signing seven pacts with Iraq in the areas of trade, industry and transport.

Ahmadinejad welcomed heartily in Iraq --Unlike Mr. Bush's cloak-and-dagger visits here -- fly-in trips to heavily guarded U.S. military bases that only last a few hours, often with no advance notice given to even the Iraqi government -- Mr. Ahmadinejad's schedule was announced days earlier.

02 Mar 2008 It's a damning indication of how poorly things have gone for the United States during its five-year misadventure in Iraq that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can drive in broad daylight though this war-ravaged city and spend the night at the presidential palace, but George W. Bush can't.

 Mr. Ahmadinejad was greeted with lavish ceremony yesterday as he became the first Iranian President to visit Baghdad, a trip some said reflected Iran's great and growing power in Iraq and how severely the U.S. effort to remake Iraq into a Western-friendly democracy has gone awry.

 Nearly 4,000 American soldiers have died since the war began in 2003, but Iraq's U.S.-backed government warmly welcomed Washington's No. 1 enemy with flowers and a band. [LOL! Gee, remember when Dick Cheney said we'd be being greeted with 'flowers' after 'liberating' Iraq??? Well, looks like he was half-right --someone *was* greeted with flowers! --Lori Price]