Diplomacy: Bush Seeks Help of Allies Barred From Iraq Deals: "President Bush found himself in the awkward position on Wednesday of calling the leaders of France, Germany and Russia to ask them to forgive Iraq's debts, just a day after the Pentagon excluded those countries and others from $18 billion in American-financed Iraqi reconstruction projects.
... White House officials said Mr. Bush and his aides had been surprised by both the timing and the blunt wording of the Pentagon's declaration. But they said the White House had signed off on the policy, after a committee of deputies from a number of departments and the National Security Council agreed that the most lucrative contracts must be reserved for political or military supporters."

Get the irony in the title: Diplomacy!

What great diplomats the Bush people are. Tell your allies to F off, then ask them to write off Billions of dollars in debt. I don't think so.

And get the brazen corruption in the second para: "the most lucrative contracts must be reserved for political or military supporters". Well that's pretty blatant, isn't it. Our taxpayer funds must be reserved for political supporters. That's Bush's political supporters. Those are the people who are making campaign contributions. That is bribery, isn't it? That is illegal isn't it? How can they get away with this?
- posted by geoff @ #