So it looks like some naughty Europeans will be getting coal in their lederhosen this Christmas. France, Germany, Russia - they won’t be invited to the big reconstruction party. The US-funded projects can only be bid on by countries that supported the war effort.

Okay, that fact is easy to understand. What boggles the mind under scrutiny is why. There are lots of ways to look at it, but every single one of ‘em reveals something squalid and ugly about it, like a cubist still life of a pile of rotting waste.

But before I get into it, I have to underscore one point - this is not a ban against certain countries getting involved; it’s a ban against companies that are based in certain countries getting involved.

That’s an important distinction. After all, Bush bent over backwards to let the Iraqi people know that our argument was with their government, not with them. “And tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq: Your enemy is not surrounding your country — your enemy is ruling your country.” But the French and the Germans don’t merit the same kind of clemency, it seems. Their governments’ crimes of non-participation and skepticism and peacemongering puts their entire populations beyond the pale. If they’d wanted a chance to bid on those $18 billion worth of contracts, why, they should’ve thought of that before they voted for the leaders who were eventually going to make those decisions!

Of course, there might have been a slight economic factor in our decision. France and Russia had existing oil deals with Iraq, and their familiarity with the region might have enabled them to make some pretty persuasive bids. It’s doubtful that Halliburton devotes too much time during strategy sessions trying to figure out how to compete more effectively against Honduras, Hungary, and Kazakhstan. Our boys will have an easier time going up against a pool limited to the Coalition of the (Mind Is) Willing (But The Infrastructure Is Weak).

To the victor go the spoils, you might say. Sure, of course, yeah. It’s just that those spoils are going to have to be doled out under pretty heavy guard. Over 100,000 individual guards, in fact. And just now we’ve ensured that at no time are those guards going to be drawn from, for example, the capable militaries of France and Russia. So call today’s decision a big win for American business, and a big loss for imperiled American soldiers and their families. Not a cheery slogan for the White House Christmas card, perhaps, but there you have it.

Then again, maybe it’s NOT about the money. Remember, back when this all started, back when Bush railed against Saddam’s mighty arsenal (really, the State of the Union is great reading), France, Germany and Russia all claimed to be unpersuaded that Saddam’s weapons programs really were all that extensive. So maybe this is our way of telling those offenders something that we can all agree on: No one likes a smartass.