Of course it was for Oil

How many millions of us said from the very beginning--even before Bush and Cheney unleashed their Shock & Awe--that it was all about oil?

Now the Iraq Oil Ministry has given a two-year, no-bid contract to the Western companies evicted by Saddam Hussein in 1972: Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, Total (French) and BP (UK). Indian, Chinese and Russian companies were turned down.

The contracts are for oil-field repair work and technical support. Of course the next step will approval of drilling for the estimated $30 trillion of Iraq's untapped oil. Condoleezza Rice--who yesterday delivered another paean to the Emperor's conquest of Iraq--said the US had no part in arranging these contracts. (Oh yeah. Sure, Condi. And you and your two Bosses are going to be out of office when the Shia, the Sunnis and the Kurds go for each other's throats over how to split the local profits.)