Is this the kind of democracy the U.S.A. wants to export to the Middle East?  After the "shock and awe" Iraq War had toppled Saddam Hussein and his regime, the big business representatives for the U.S.A. descended on Iraq like locusts.  A couple of beheadings and they got the point that the much heralded "welcome mat" prior to the Iraq invasion was Administration propaganda and they fled back to the safety of their corporate sponsors in the U.S.A.

Perhaps they understood for the very first time that Iraqis might have welcomed seeing Saddam ousted from power, but the last thing they wanted for the U.S.A. to linger on and dictate how the Iraqi government should be run.  Rest assured, they recognized the magnetic pull of Iraqi oil.  U.S. oil barons with their staggering current gas prices have shown what a greedy lot they are while profits skyrocket.  The Bush Administration, of course, does nothing about it.  After all, oil companies were fabulous Republican campaign contributors.

Enron's notorious Kenneth Lay still walks around as a free man after all the Enron corruption debacle.  Lay and his Enron cronies nearly bankrupted the "Golden State" with their ruthless rape of California's economy.  Instead of calling Kenneth Lay Inflation Enemy Number 1, Bush socialized with him and enjoyed box seats at baseball games together.  He called him "Kenny Boy" and treated him as a close friend.  

California's catastrophe victims called this tycoon something else.  Friends in high places haven't hurt Kenneth Lay, that's for sure!