So the British government is asking for more of the 6 billion dollars or more worth of contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq to be awarded to ... British companies. For a minute there I thought someone might have been standing up for the Iraqis in all of this, but no - I should've known better I suppose. Obviously, it's not realistic to expect multi-billion dollar contracts to be given to inexperienced Iraqi companies, but surely someone needs to be seriously questioning the Americans, and how they are giving the contracts out - there has been plenty of comment about the links between those high up in American government and some of the companies given contracts.
Even if these companies are going to get these massive contracts, you would think the Americans might be decent enough to ensure that as big an Iraqi workforce will be employed as possible. Or perhaps these big companies should be asked to donate some of their profits to the cause, but I guess that's not very likely.