NO. We knew, and the congress knew, and the military knew. More generals and admirals have quit under this president than any other, and why? Because they couldn’t speak out or defy orders while in the service. But now, with the release of General Taguba’s report on the systemic, from the top-down human rights abuses going on against detainees around the globe, there is a record. And with the New York Times reportof the new “oilfield service agreements” for the four oil companies ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total and BP, all granted in no-bid fashion, it is clear to anyone watching that the end-game had to be resolved before the door hits the oilmen on the way out of Washington.

So what was it all for? Two-year contracts to “share” their oil? OK. To the victor go the spoils, even if it means that we sacrificed not only hundreds of thousands of lives, lives lost, lives ruined; both Iraqi and American, British, as well as the coerced “coalition.” And then what? Do we stay there forever as McCain would like to see, with 58 bases to guard the ill-gotten gains of those four companies? Shouldn’t those companies be required to pay some of the cost back? After all, this ends up being the Mother of all R&D expeditions, n’est pas?Which reminds me, after all the brouhaha over France’s non-participation: Total, S.A.? What did Sarkozy do for that?

But the bigger missing pieces to the no-bid puzzle are yet to be seen, and they come under the heading of BLOWBACK. Because Russia and China were cut out of opportunities to bid (and, truth be told, could have under-bid), they are not going to take kindly to these deals, and they have the leverage to avenge the slight. It won’t be violent, however, it will be economic.

But can the American people who have had this wretched petrofraud war committed in our names, at least demand that the companies for whose benefit it was clearly fought be made to pony up the expense? At least with a windfall profits tax?

Just think about it, because every bit of this is wrong on every level – and must be discussed openly and completely, until everything comes out. Meanwhile we can rename the three octane grades A-, B-, and O- (There are no positives)