US Vice President Joe Biden, who's not known to watch his mouth, wrapped up an unusually long three-day trip to Baghdad aimed at fostering political reconciliation, in his customary style. Celebrating the Fourth of July with American troops in Iraq on Saturday, that included lunch with the 261st Theater Tactical Signal Brigade from Delaware to which his son, Beau, belongs, the vice president spoke about a naturalization ceremony earlier in which he greeted more than 200 US soldiers who were becoming American citizens. The ceremony was held in a marble domed hall at one of Saddam Hussein's palaces at Camp Victory, the US military headquarters on the outskirts of Baghdad. The vice president, who's known for his often colorful language, told the brigade about the naturalization ceremony. “We did it in Saddam's palace,” he said. “That S.O.B. is rolling over in his grave right now.” It was Biden's first visit as vice president and as Obama's new unofficial point man on Iraq, although he has been to the country several times as a senator. Biden planned to travel to the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq later Saturday. Biden's visit and his new position overseeing the US administration's Iraq policy reflect growing concern about a recent rise in violence after a series of bombings that killed scores of people.
