A reader makes what seems like a sensible suggestion: maybe the decision to blacklist German, French, and Russian firms from bidding on Iraqi reconstruction was just a bargaining ploy, designed to induce those governments to do something helpful as a way of getting their companies a share of the pork. That could be right, and the White House press spokesman suggested as much. However, he doesn’t seem to have been in communication with the President, who said the opposite.
And don’t you love Bush’s contemptuous dismissal of international law? The WTO violation here is pretty transparent.
More evidence that astounding incompetence can lead to miserable failure.
Note: If you want to help with the Google-bombing, please note that it’s now “astounding incompetence” rather than “astonishing incompetence.”