So we hear from the powers that be in Washington that the government will punish France, Germany, Russia, and Canada for not joining in on the Iraq crusade. Washington will refuse to accept bids from private companies in those countries for reconstruction contracts. This is a clear case of cutting off our nose to spite our face. Given the hundreds of billion of dollars that are going into Iraq from American taxpayers, our government owes us the courtesy of procuring the best quality at the lowest cost in its reconstruction efforts. This will not be assured if we cut anyone out of the bidding process for political reasons. What the administration is saying is that it is willing to short change the American taxpayer to punish someone in one of these countries who had nothing to do with their government?s decision to oppose the war, and, in fact, may have personally supported the US. This is typical of what people do when they are spending other people’s money.