About a year ago, while visiting my family, I caught some of the Tim Russert show on CNBC. For the uninitiated, this is a different Russert gig than Meet the Press, and usually features one or two guests, a table and a darkened studio. Well, on this particular episode Russert had Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, and E.J. Dionne, Washington Post columnist, discussing the looming war in Iraq. On the program, Kristol said that when we finally did go to war in Iraq there would be a lot of money, in the way of government contracts, that would not be available to those countries who didn't support the action. In fact, he cracked that Australia and Britain will be more than welcome to scoop up those contracts. Well slap my ass and call me Sally. Bill Kristol has access to the pipeline of straight dope. (What?)Yesterday, in a message posted on their website, the Pentagon annonced that the government contracts up for bid in the ongoing Iraqi rebuilding efforts will not be available to countries like Canada, France, Germany and Russia, and will instead go to countries that supported the action, including the U.S. (obvioulsy), Australia, Britain and Rawanda, among others.
Most Democrats are outraged by this turn of events, seeing the decision as punitive and counter-intuintive to the overall objective of rebuilding Iraq. But I like it. I like America sticking up for herself in the global community. We were very plain when we got involved in the Iraqi conflict. Either you're with us, or you're against us. France, Germany and Russia are against us, at least in terms of this war, and so they don't get to participate in the spoils of victory. Wasn't it the Democrat Andrew Jackson who said: "To the victors go the spoils."
Now to see if the Bush administration withstands the attacks and sticks to its guns.
Tony
