>>Have Iraq and Afghanistan been opened up for tourism yet? :o) When do I get to visit the "colony" and when do I want to????? :o)
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>I always thought my true calling in life would have been to be the dissolute black-sheep of a English aristocratic family who would have been supplied an opium and tattooed-native-girl stipend as long as I remained East of Suez.
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>Postings in Kenya, the Raj, Ceylon, Mandalay, Singapore, Hong Kong ... that could have all been fun. Can't imagine we're giving our young people the same experience in Iraq and Afghanistan ( not to mention the places ... not to mention ).
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>Spanish weren't shy about taking all that gold the Aztecs had lying around, and they did it all on the cheap. Brits found a way to have a War on drugs with China ( much as you'd mount a campaign "on horseback") and pay for a lot of Indian cotton.
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>Iraq has cost us a bundle and we haven't even had the presence of mind to steal the oil. ( or more to the point, use 9/11 as a pretext to establish a "protectorate" in Saudi Arabia and the UAR ) We sent Marines to Nicaragua for banans - twice I think - but nowadays Chavez sits there without worry of the USMC or William Walker.
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>When it comes to good old fashioned world-raping imperialism - we're just not very good at it. <g>

You can say that again or else we would be vacationing in Kuwait and all our oil would be free....