LISBON, Portugal (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she's excited about a landmark trip she will make to Libya on Friday, becoming the highest-ranking American official to visit the North African country in more than a half-century.

"I am very much looking forward to it," she said here before leaving for Tripoli, where she will meet and shake hands with Moammar Gadhafi and close a nearly three-decade era of bitter animosity between the United States and Libya.

"It is a historic moment and it is one that has come after a lot of difficulty, the suffering of many people that will never be forgotten or assuaged, Americans in particular for whom I am very concerned," Rice told a news conference in Lisbon.

"It is also the case that this comes out of a historic decision that Libya made to give up weapons of mass destruction and renounce terrorism," she said. "Libya," she added, "is a place that is changing and I want to discuss how that change is taking place."...

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080905/D930HSA00.html

Now what the hell is Secretary Rice doing in Libya when the Russians are invading Georgia, Iraq is still a mess, Afghanistan is neglected, and so on? Then I read on...

...As the first secretary of state to visit the former pariah, oil-rich country in more than a half-century, Rice's visit will represent a foreign policy success for a Bush administration badly in need of one in its final months...

It's all about the oil, again. COL Ghaddafi should feel fortunate in one respect. We didn't send the Marines in to "negotiate" as we did in Iraq.