And it's one, two, three,

What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn....

So. Trillions of dollars later and hundreds of thousands dead, a destroyed infrastructure and ruined country, a depleted uranium-poisoned environment, a broken and misused military, and thousands of young terrorists in the making.... all for...

Continuing where Saddam left off:

Baghdad, Iraq (AHN) - Iraq's government approved Tuesday a $3 billion deal with a Chinese company to develop an oil field in the central Shiite province of Wasit.

China Petroleum National Corp. will make the Al-Ahdab oil field produce 25,000 barrels of oil per day in the first three years making it the first foreign company to be awarded a service agreement to tap Iraq's oil reserve since the ouster of former leader Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The same agreement revives a $700 million joint venture deal between Iraq and the company signed by Hussein's regime in 1997 but was scuttled because of United Nations sanctions and the war following the U.S. invasion of the country.

How's Cheney taking the news? Planning any air raids on al-Maliki's house and the irritatingly functional democratic Iraqi parliament?

How are the real head honchos taking it? Not Deciderer Commander Guy Georgie Bush, but Exxon-Mobil, Shell, BP?

China and Iran win

As Bush blunders on: (Quote is from front page brief on the article.)

In an audacious swoop, China has beaten off rivals from the US, Canada and Russia to secure a US$4 billion copper project in Afghanistan, leaving India to build hospitals and schools. And this week, China Petroleum Corporation sealed a $2 billion oil and gas development project in Iran, just as Delhi - at Washington's bidding - slapped banking restrictions on Tehran. By hitching its colors to the US-Israeli bandwagon, India is now paying the price for overlooking the reality that Iran is the only really viable regional power in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

When you piss all over diplomacy, this is what you get. Nothing and a broken big stick.

So... is bombing Iran still on the table because of this?

Update. Notice a theme?:

China has emerged as a leading and growing buyer of US debt, notably bonds linked to the troubled American housing market.

On the back of a business-first foreign policy, China is rapidly supplanting Europe as Africa's major trade and development partner. It is an intriguing geopolitical alliance between the world's fastest-expanding economy and the most impoverished continent. Meanwhile, the EU squirms as Beijing's non-interference policy ignores its lofty plans for good governance and sustainability.

A cultural shift is taking place in easternmost Russia, and it's not what Moscow fears. It's not the massive influx of unwanted Chinese long predicted in the press, but a more subtle and unexpected "Sino-ization" of ethnic Russians who are increasingly turning towards China as a land of tolerance and opportunity.

This will obviously be the century of China as the main superpower.