In college, my major was international finance. Well ... for about a week. Then I switched to petroleum science. And that lasted about a day and a half, until the poker game started in the back room of Mrs. "B"'s Boarding House. So I settled down to 'major' in boarding house beer and cards, with a minor in guitar ... and walked away with a degree in statistics. Go figure.

But in those first eight days of real college, I did learn one thing: Oil is power ... international power ... better than a Royal Flush in the international game of finance. The guy in the Beverly Hillbillies song was right when he called it "Black Gold".

So in the recent meeting of so-called donors to Iraqi reconstruction, how come Iraq wasn't invited to attend, and participate in its OWN reconstruction ... financially, that is? Come, class...let's go to the blackboard, and roll that cool oil footage...

•  Crude oil is valued at about $30 dollars a barrel.

•  Iraq currently pumps about two million barrels a day.

•  Not counting the United States, the "foreign donors" to the reconstruction of Iraq pledged about $13 billion dollars last week.

•  That's ... let's see ... 216 days, or about 7 months worth of Iraqi oil production, thank you very much.

So, why wasn't Iraq invited? I know, I know... it's a ridiculous inference that I make. But it does shed a little perspective on just who should be paying what, doesn't it?

And, yes, I do sit back and wonder what I would be doing today had that doggone poker game not broken out. Gee, I could be working for Halliburton, getting rich ... or maybe even the CEO of Halliburton ... or maybe even ...