Oil in Iraq: "U.S. firms bowed out of the most recent bidding"

"Baghdad Hails Oil Auction as Success: Shell, Lukoil, Other Companies Pledge to Vastly Increase Nation's Output Despite Hurdles"

Again the question arises: If, as I've been repeatedly told by my progressive friends, the war in Iraq was/is "all about oil," why aren't US oil companies getting any of the contracts?

 

Christopher Hitchens on oil in Iraq