Iran Winning Iraqi Hearts And Minds

Every initiative and operation in Iraq, be it economic or military, seems to have a title, usually one that sounds like it has been devised by throwing darts at a set of words and then combining them like a slogan on a tee shirt.

If the Iranians had wanted one for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's two-day jaunt, they could simply have used the title from a Carpenters song: "We've Only Just Begun".

Iran has been called the main beneficiary of the Iraq conflict so often it is almost a cliché. Ahmadinejad's trip was aimed at making it an indisputable fact. The removal of Iran's most implacable enemy - Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party - and its replacement by a Shiite-dominated regime, several of whose key players spent time in exile in Iran - was a freebie first step. Now the Iranians are well on their way.

For a send-off, Ahmadinejad didn't get just one "kiss for luck"; he got four, when he was welcomed by U.S.-backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who threw in a symbolic hug by standing impassive while the Iranian leader told a joint press conference: "The Americans have to understand the facts of the region. Iraqi people do not like America."

Many of them, notably the Sunni minority, don't care all that much for Iran either. But, even they were impressed by the fact that Ahmadinejad flagged his trip well in advance, made a ceremonial arrival in full view of Iraqi media, traveled by road and did not stay in the fortified Green Zone.

The show was in stark contrast to President Bush and other American VIPs who, if they deign to venture off secure U.S. military bases after they arrive here unannounced and in secret, do so by helicopter.

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