Or so says Paul Wolfowitz. Well, ok, we'll let them participate, but they can't be in charge of anything; they must have supervision from us or one of our friends.
What's really saddest about this is that it isn't really aimed at punishing France, Germany, and Russia for opposing us in Iraq. That's not the way Wolfowitz thinks: he's a deterrance guy. He's trying to deter nations—particularly smaller and Third World nations who have rotating seats on the UN Security Council—from opposing US proposals for military action in the future. The French, German, and Russian economies are big enough to survive this with barely more than gnashing of teeth, particularly since companies from those nations are allowed to continue as subcontractors. Many other economies are not.
Can you say "playground bully"? See? I knew you could.
On a less polemic note, compare Europe after the punitive Treaty of Versailles, and the results over the next quarter of a century, with Europe under the Marshall Plan, and results over the next quarter of a century. <SARCASM> Or is nothing that we've learned in European history applicable to the Third World, because the Third World starts out less civilized? </SARCASM> It's not just spite; it's stupidity. But then, I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised (artist-authorized MP3, 2.3mb).