A few people have suggested that the whole brouhaha over the contracts is largely symbolic since even countries that are barred from bidding on the top-tier contracts can bid on the subcontracts. So, in other words, everyone gets a piece of the action and everyone is happy.

That's not what I hear.

The big contracts are where the real money is -- or, more specifically, where you get the comfortable margins and the insulation from risk. Down the food chain, the competition is stiffer, the margins are leaner and the risks are greater -- sort of like in old fashioned capitalism.