A big debate brewing is over France and Germany being shut out of lucrative contracts in Iraq. I understand, and in a lot of ways, agree, with the logic that since they did not contribute to the war effort, they shouldn't be able to share in the spoils of war. They had plenty of good reasons for not wanting to be involved with the war, but the fact of the matter is that they wanted nothing to do with the war until they stood to profit from it.

It's a little hypocritical to get pissed at the Germans and French just because they're looking to turn a profit from this war, though. After all, that's a good deal of the reason as to why we fucking got involved with this.

Still, the question remains, what right do they have to be involved in reconstruction? Well, the answer is that they have no right. But that's not necessarily a reason to shut them out, because bringing them in could have some positive side effects.

As Krugman pointed out, allowing nations like France to compete for contracts would go a long way towards reconciliation with our allies. Of course, the question remains as to whether or not we really want to reconcile with "old Europe." Well, that's what we've said we want to do, so why not actually start making good on that? Yeah, because there's a good chance that we don't want to.

I'm sure lots of people could give less than a shit about our allies and the rest of the world. We have this "We're America, we're better than everyone else, we don't need them, so fuck 'em" mentality. Yeah, maybe we can get by with this hybrid interventionalist/isolationist policy where we stand alone but we're fucking with EVERYBODY, but there's a big fucking world out there. Yeah, we've got the money, and the power, but there are only, what, 300 million of us? And 6 billion other people out there?

We'd do good to quit being the spoiled little playground brat who wants everyone's toys but refuses to share once we've got them. I'm not implying that any powerful nation is going to be declaring war on us anytime soon, but that doesn't mean that people won't be trying to fuck with us, whether it's through terrorism, economics, or whatever.

I mean, what's currently defining our nation, TWAT (the war against terror), is a byproduct of our foreign policy. I'm not saying "we had it coming" with things like September 11th (although I am tempted), but to deny that our actions around the globe had anything to do with what we're up against is just ignorant. And when I talk of global action and foreign policy, this isn't just Bush I'm talking about - I'm talking about all the stuff we've been up to in the past in addition to the present.

On the Bush front, though, his team's foreign policy is a huge gamble. Yeah, maybe the rest of the world will be scared shitless of America and they'll play ball with us. In lots of cases, we might be able to get away with this. Might. Some may rebel immediately, but with others a hatred of America will grow and fester until someday it will explode (quite literally) in our faces. And if you don't think that will happen, well, it already is happening.

The other reason why I'm for patching things up with others is just because it's the right thing to do. How exactly can we expect to get away with saying we're so moral and upright when we're in reality huge cocksuckers?

A lot of what's going on is just stupid American pride. It's not just "you're not giving lives for the war, so you shouldn't make money off it," it's "you disagreed with us, so now we're going to punish you." I think it's time for America to quit talking a good game about being so righteous and actually be the bigger person by acting in a manner befitting that attitude.