This removed the leverage that the U.S. government would have had to make sure of an uninterrupted flow of spare parts for any Airbus tanker in case of a policy difference with France and Germany, which hold stakes in EADS and which opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The above point is not inconsequential.
I do not, ever, want US policy decided by another nation.
Boeing has/is screwing this up by the numbers (as has the Pentagon), but spare me the hypocrisy. When the financial stakes are this big, each company is going all-out to win.
It's not unheard of.
EADS is hardly the shining Euro-knight on the hill.