Comentary on Iraq bidding

Steven DenBeste has a good analysis of the bidding guidlines for future Iraq contracts. bq. from US deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz: bq. It is necessary for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States to limit competition for the prime contracts of these procurements to companies from the United States, Iraq, Coalition partners and force contributing nations. Steven's comment: bq. Which is in fact correct. If nations who offered substantial help are treated exactly the same as those who did their best to impede us, then why in future should we expect anyone to feel they need to help us? Good stuff (as is usual from Steven) UPDATE: Another post from Steven with Old Europe's reaction and some good comments - he links to ABC News' report (I linked to the Yahoo/AP copy in this entry - same text in both) His comments: bq. There are a number of interesting buried assumptions in this. First is that Europe speaks with a single voice, and that any trans-Atlantic rift which might be developing is between the US and a monolithic entity known as "Europe". Second is that "Europe" is synonymous with the "Axis of Weasels". bq. It doesn't seem to acknowledge that the majority of members of the EU are helping the US in Iraq and presumably would not be on this blacklist. And it very definitely doesn't acknowledge that the real rift is inside Europe itself. There's no rift between the US and UK, or between the US and Poland, or between the US and Spain; there's only a rift between the US and the Weasels. bq. And why do I get the impression that the reporter, or his editors, thinks that the rift is our fault, and that it is incumbent on us to eliminate the rift by moving towards the Weasels, instead of them moving towards us? bq. I find the term "important allied countries" interesting. France and Germany are countries, alright, so at least it's not totally wrong. But are they "important"? And more to the point, are they really "allies"? bq. I don't think they're as important as they wish they were. (In fact I'm damned well sure that France isn't as important as the French think it should be.) And it is my opinion that they ceased being allies more than a year ago, for any meaningful value of "ally". Steven's main website is here - it's one of the ones I make sure to check every day.