US firms set for postwar contracts

The American government is on the verge of awarding construction contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild Iraq once Saddam Hussein is deposed.
[more]

Building block
The surreptitious way the process for inviting engineering companies to submit bids for the rebuilding of Iraq was handled could lead to more trouble for the Bush administration, writes Mark Tran

"Why should Britain have to share the blood in a war but British companies not be allowed to share in the economic upturn afterwards," said Richard O'Brien, a spokesman for Amicus, Britain's largest manufacturing union.

An unseemly row over the spoils even before war has been fought is the last thing the Bush administration needs as it desperately seeks votes for a second resolution in the UN security council. But the US has only itself to blame for the clumsy way it has handled this particular aspect of reconstruction.
[more]

The war hasn't even started and they are fighting over the spoils. How tacky can you get? Just wait.