Dear Hubby - France and Germany weren't the only ones with their hands in the cookie jar. Seems that Cheney as head of Halliburton was dirty dipping as well. That means that the U.S. knew exactly what was happening. Might be worth checking a few sources before you start pointing fingers.

From Common Dreams:

"But the one company that helped Saddam exploit the oil-for-food program in the mid-1990s that wasn't identified in Duelfer's report was Halliburton, and the person at the helm of Halliburton at the time of the scheme was Vice President Dick Cheney. Halliburton and its subsidiaries were one of several American and foreign oil supply companies that helped Iraq increase its crude exports from $4 billion in 1997 to nearly $18 billion in 2000 by skirting U.S. laws and selling Iraq spare parts so it could repair its oil fields and pump more oil."

Maybe other countries thought if the U.S. was doing it, they must operate on the same playing field in order to secure their supply of oil.