All those poor nations that were strong-armed into joining Washington’s “coalition of the willing” finally got their reward last week — their companies will be permitted to bid on $18 billion worth of Pentagon contracts for reconstructing Iraq.

No doubt champagne glasses were clinking and CEOs doing high-fives in corporate boardrooms throughout Rwanda, Eritrea, Albania, Mongolia, Tonga, Uganda, etc. (Although it seems unlikely that Third World companies will squeeze out Halliburton, Bechtel, etc.)

Meanwhile, countries in the coalition of the unwilling — including Canada — are barred from the Pentagon contracts, illustrating again that the Bush administration seems to regard Iraq as a treasure chest of spoils, to be doled out only to those who have helped in the heist.

All this came at an awkward time for Paul Martin, who last week was in the final throes of taking over the reins of power in Ottawa, and who has vowed to improve U.S.-Canada relations.

Martin quickly leapt into the fray, proclaiming the Pentagon blacklist “difficult to fathom” — although it’s hard to imagine anything much more straightforward.

It’s nice to see our new Prime Minister questioning the Pentagon, but his protests over the Iraq contracts are misplaced. This is one sandbox we should be happy to stay out of.

To begin with, let’s remember what we’re dealing with here — reconstruction contracts awarded by an army of occupation. The whole premise is wrong. The only people who should be rebuilding Iraq are Iraqis.

Iraq has a highly educated workforce that effectively managed the country’s electrical, water, education, health care and oil-pumping systems — even under the deprivation of years of harsh sanctions — until Washington invaded last spring.

In fact, Iraqis could probably rebuild their country for a lot less than what the Pentagon is paying. (Halliburton, which has already been awarded contracts over there worth $5 billion, has been charging the Pentagon twice the going rate for delivering fuel from Kuwait to Iraq, the New York Times reported last week.)

If the U.S. wants to turn Iraq into a functioning country — not to mention a democracy — it should start by doing something about unemployment levels there that are above 50 per cent. So Iraqis rebuilding Iraq — I know it sounds radical — would be a good place to start.

But Canadians should also be happy to pass up these Pentagon contracts because of the strings attached. The Bush administration could hardly be clearer: It’s a package deal. As deputy U.S. Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz put it: “Limiting competition for prime contracts will encourage the expansion of international co-operation in Iraq and in future efforts.” Fight American wars, get Pentagon contracts. No blood, no booty.

This is a horrific package deal, particularly with a White House that has declared itself ready to fight preemptive wars.

Of course, Washington plans to make all the decisions about where and when to wage war, but it would clearly like to have some willing helpers — well-armed, co-operative, cheerful nations to help out in war zones.

Canada, with its ample resources and reputation for deferential behaviour, would seem like the perfect fit — except that it’s been strangely unco-operative lately, refusing to fight in Iraq, spending money on health care that it could be putting towards beefing up its military.

All that may be about to change, however, now that the cranky former prime minister has been ousted in a bloodless coup and replaced with a new leader who promises friendlier U.S.-Canada ties. (As a CNN headline put it on Friday: “Pro-American takes over as Canadian PM.”)

I suspect most Canadians would like to continue to stay out of U.S. wars and would prefer to rebuild our public health-care system before worrying about our military.

But there are powerful elements in our corporate elite — many of whom contributed heavily to Martin’s recent leadership campaign — with different priorities. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), headed by Tom d’Aquino, has been pushing for what it calls deeper integration with the U.S., which includes closer economic and military co-operation.

This would better position Canadian firms to win contracts from the Pentagon, which has an astonishing $400 billion a year to dispense.

But don’t bother applying unless your government is onside. One effect of deeper integration, then, according to defence analyst Steven Staples at Ottawa’s Polaris Institute, would be to activate a powerful Canadian corporate lobby, which would pressure Ottawa to keep our foreign policy in line with Washington’s.

All this threatens to put Canada on a reckless, dangerous and immoral course, as a sidekick in Washington’s wars and a northern branch of its military-industrial complex.

Linda McQuaig

Journalist and best-selling author Linda McQuaig has developed a reputation for challenging the establishment. As a reporter for The Globe and Mail, she won a National Newspaper Award in 1989...