CNN.com - China pushes for post-war role - Apr. 10, 2003

This is a very interesting development in the whole Iraq war/crisis. Now that the war's practically over, all these people are claiming to be on the coalition side so that they can have their cut in the plunder. Most of the countries of course will say that they want to be involved in the "rebuilding of Iraq," to "help out Iraq for humanitarian reasons." But let's face it, everybody just wants a guaranteed piece of the Iraqi oil pie.
Throughout the war, the criticisms against the US and UK coalition forces were that they're not in there to discover weapons of mass destruction or to liberate the Iraqi people from the heavy ruling hand of Saddam Hussein, but to get more oil. To put it simply, a lot of countries protested against the war because they thought that the US and UK were greedy for oil.
Now it appears that those same critical countries are greedy for Iraqi oil. The difference between them and the US and UK is that the US and UK paid for that oil through the war and soliders' lives. Of course, the people who paid the most are the Iraqi people, but we'll leave that as an aside for now. Basically, France, Russia, Germany, China, etc. want the benefits of the war without fighting or participating in the war. They want a freebie.
It's like when there's a fight at school, and it ends with Guy A winning and Guy B on the ground. And then Guy A's friend (let's call him Guy C) comes in, throws a few punches on Guy B while Guy B's on the ground, and tells all his friends that he beat up Guy B. What's up with that?
Actually, maybe we should just give the oil to the war vets and their families. Free gas, plane tickets, and petroleum/plastic products for life. I think it sounds pretty fair.
While we're at it, give discounted prices on all oil products on Veterans Day and Memorial Day to the American public... that way, we'll definitely remember those holidays and give the American soldiers the respect they deserve.