>>I think historic credentials are quite sufficient that England never be put in the column marked "cheese eating surrender monkeys" <g>
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>>I do think we have a great deal to learn from our cousins about running an empire without making too much of a mess.
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>Ahem. Read anything about the partitioning of India? (I'm sure you have).

PArtitioning of India, though botched, less than ideal (to say the least), was not an excercise in running the empire - it was dismantling it. A lot of India is still run on the old Raj lines (esp the Railway lines!). The need for was foisted on the Brits. BTW, It being 60 years and all that there has been a series of TV progs on the subject recently. Geez, I knew there was ethnic trouble and all that; I'd always thought of rioting, looting, taking pot-shots at each other, a few bombings - I'd never conssidered the horrors I gleaned from one prog. Example, Sikhs in a village all beheading their daughters to ensure they weren't seized and deflowered by a local Muslim leader who'd been demanding one or two girls as appeasement. Beggars belief!!!

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>Whenever I am tempted by the appeal of splitting Iraq up along religious lines, I think of that example.