> Note that U.S. oil companies did rather poorly in the recent round of
> auctions in Iraq. Companies from China, Malaysia, France, and Russia did
> at least as well or better.
Is this a profitable pattern for Russia? If, as CDoss says, the Russians are happy to support the US in Afghanistan, then perhaps they're looking at the same scenario: the US does the killing and dying in an energy-rich area of the world, then Russia (and others) comes in to bid without having to deploy a single battalion. Seems like a smart move to me.
Dennis