December 10, 2003 - Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz announced that the Pentagon won't share the spoils of war with German, French or Russian firms - at least not as prime contractors in rebuilding Iraq . Wolfowitz justified the action as protecting "the essential security interests of the United States ." But, friends, down in the fine print the policy declaration makes clear that German, French or Russian firms don't imperil "the essential security interests of the United States ." when they are functioning as sub-contractors working for Halliburton or Bechtel. Joe Biden sees the policy announcement as a "gratuitous slap" at the nations that did not sign on to the WMD fiction and rubber stamp the President's war. The Senator has a point, but I think he missed the main one.

George Bush's war wasn't about WMD or support of Al Qaida or about liberating an oppressed people. It was, and is, about building a 21 st Century American Empire following the policies formulated by Wolfowitz and the other members of the Project for a New American Century long before George Bush was nominated in 2000. What good is it to wield imperial power if you don't control imperial profits? French, German, and Russian firms don't make American political contributions - at least not directly. American prime contractors do.

In is interesting that this PMAC policy announcement comes just a week after Europe backed George Bush down over steel tariffs and on the same day that the President kowtowed to Beijing over Taiwan . The tariff debacle was a reflection of the new international economic reality - a reality that is more and more apparent when you read the labels on the products sitting on the Christmas shopping shelves. Europe and Asia are fast replacing America as the core of international economic engine. Perhaps more ominously the Euro is poised to push the incredible shrinking dollar aside as the primary currency of international commerce just as a half century ago the Dollar replaced the British Pound.

The Wolfowitz policy is not about national security any more than the war was about national security. Both are about control - control of the essential oil reserves and control of the profits flowing from the continuing war. The weak dollar coupled with the low interest rates America 's stricken economy is rapidly driving away the foreign investors that had up to now lent the money to fund the Bush deficit and fuel the sputtering economy.

It is time that the Bush Administration stopped focusing on the spoils of war and started looking at what the war has spoiled.