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12/09/2003 Archived Entry: "Tell me again how these thugs in the White House are so smart."
Tell me again how these thugs in the White House are so smart.
White House to Germany, France and Russia: screw you.
The Pentagon has barred French, German and Russian companies from competing for $18.6 billion in contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, saying the step "is necessary for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States."The directive, which was issued by the deputy defense secretary, Paul D. Wolfowitz, represents perhaps the most substantive retaliation to date by the Bush administration against American allies who opposed its decision to go to war in Iraq.
The administration had warned before the war that countries that did not join an American-led coalition would not have a voice in decisions about the rebuilding of Iraq. But the administration had not previously made clear that French, German and Russian companies would be excluded from competing for the lucrative reconstruction contracts, which include the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure and equipping its army.
This should really help in getting the rest of the world back on our side, unless the goal is to just piss everybody off.
Replies: 13 people speak up
George Bush and his crew are such a bunch of vindictive little pussies. What a disaster it is that they are permitted to lead our country.
Posted by Tom @ 12/10/2003 12:24 AM NY
Why do we need those countries help, they all owe us money anyways. I think it would be great if they paid us before we started helping them make money.
Posted by Rick @ 12/10/2003 08:41 AM NY
I have a dream that the next president, whomever they are (as long as it's not Bush I'll be fine) will foster good will throughout Europe, and allow the UN to do it's job in Iraq. If Bush would have done this from the start, we wouldn't be in this mess right now. Just my $.02 (hey, it's all I can afford to give in this economy).
Posted by sellursoul @ 12/10/2003 08:56 AM NY
Rick, you might want to recheck your facts - in the case of Germany or France, the U.S. is the debtee, not the debtor.
Posted by Eurotrash @ 12/10/2003 09:56 AM NY
well, this makes sense. after all, this is really a by proxy war against europe anyway. a big part of this war is based on the fact that iraq was switching from the dollar to the euro for oil sales, and many other OPEC countries were going to follow suit. we attacked them to teach those other countries a lesson, as well as asserting our dominance over europe. (well, there is also all that oil, what a lot of people dont understand is that we are not fighting for oil, we are fighting to keep other people from having oil) its a war for rescources and domination, oil is just a very small part of it. now that "THE GREAT COMMUNIST EMPIRE" is dead who would you expect us to position as our enemy? cuba? no, the global posture that is developing is clearly going to be the america VS. europe VS. the "third world". i know, i know what you are thinking, but you have to admit that orwell was a visionary, even if he didnt get it exactly right. thus begins the endless war
Posted by justin @ 12/10/2003 10:41 AM NY
Eurotrash,
"in the case of Germany or France, the U.S. is the debtee, not the debtor."
I believe the correct terminology is the "debtor," not the "creditor."
Metropolitan99: proudly busting your grammatical balls since 1985.
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 12/10/2003 11:40 AM NY
what did you bust peoples' balls about before 1985? either way you say it, we still owe them money. no one mentions the fact that we are also blocking canada from bidding on any of the contracts. this regime is really starting to be an embarassment (not that they werent before, they just keep showing their ass more and more)
Posted by justin @ 12/10/2003 12:23 PM NY
i was going to say "and canada" but justin covered that one. also why not give a few of these contracts to iraqies
Posted by el lurker @ 12/10/2003 12:31 PM NY
the reason we wont let iraqis bid for contracts is that they were one of the main countries that opposed this war (even more than france). besides, if we let iraqis rebuild their country, next they will want to run their own country, and we cant have that. if we wanted democracy in the middle east we wouldnt have installed the shah in iran after the popular revolution there, and then once all the reasonable muslims were killed off by the weapons we gave the shah, the extremist muslims overthrew the shah and installed the ayatolahs. thus began our relationship with saddam hussein, we had to have a strong man with a moustache in there somewhere in order to feel safe in the region. dont expect any democracy in iraq. dont even expect us to rebuild the country. america doesnt do that, we just look out for US. besides america fears muslim democracy as much as we ever feared communists, the communists didnt have the worlds oil supply.
Posted by justin @ 12/10/2003 12:52 PM NY
I'm lost... I thought that Halburton was rebuilding Iraq, and doing so by pulling in cheap labor from other Middle Eastern Countries, and reselling it for 3 times the cost to our own government. Also I thought I read somewhere that they were charging the Army 5 times the Iraqi market price for refined oil products (gas).
With companies like Halburton rebuilding Iraq, who needs France, Germany or Canada?
Posted by sellursoul @ 12/10/2003 03:27 PM NY
Bush-Haters! Bush-Haters! This entire debate is a miserable failure!
Posted by phillycheesesteak @ 12/10/2003 09:07 PM NY
Metropolitan99: Thanks for correcting me there. What I meant above was: the U.S. owes Germany and France, not vice versa.
Posted by Eurotrash @ 12/11/2003 03:24 AM NY
Off topic... but can someone explain this:
"Pentagon auditors found that Vice President Dick Cheney's former company overcharged by possibly as much as $61 million for gasoline in Iraq, senior defense officials said Thursday. Halliburton apparently didn't profit from the overcharging, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity"
How can you overcharge by $61 million, and NOT make a profit? Is Halliburtion really run that poorly, and what does that say about Cheney?
Posted by sellursoul @ 12/11/2003 09:27 PM NY
