Imperialism

By now the shrieks of "AMERICAN IMPERIALISM!" have been ringing in my ears for years, as it probably has with most of yours. You can't turn on a news channel without some idiotic moron howling about it. Everywhere you look, there's some Leftist yelling about how America is imperialist, yadda yadda yadda.

But what "colonies" do we have? The last time I looked, we have two official territories, right? Guam and Puerto Rico. Both of these territories can leave if they want. In fact, if I remember correctly we put the issue to a vote in Puerto Rico several years ago, and they preferred the status quo. The bottom line is that they can leave whenever they want, and they'll probably get a nice gift basket from the USA if they do, not to mention the friendly relations and economic benefits that come with them. We're not expanding, and in fact the times when we had to go into other countries in the past one-hundred years or so, WE GAVE THE COUNTRIES BACK. Japan. Germany, Kuwait. Panama. Afganistan is holding it's elections soon. Are you noticing a trend here?

But what about the Left's dream country, France?

One of France's farthest-flung and most exotic colonial possessions, French Polynesia, elected its first pro-independence leader yesterday in a blow to the government in Paris.

The new head of state, Oscar Temaru, replaced a long-time political ally of President Jacques Chirac as president. The new man favours independence for the South Pacific archipelago, also known by the name of its main island, Tahiti.

Wait a minute, France has a COLONY? But golly gee gosh, I NEVER hear the left howl about France's Imperialism! How could this be?

The shock result, which coincides with political instability in France's other South Pacific colony, New Caledonia, heralds a loosening of ties with Paris, analysts said.

TWO COLONIES? But... but... but...

Even so, his win sets the stage for a future showdown with Paris. The French government had threatened to cut off funding to the territory if Mr Temaru was elected and flew 120 extra police officers to the islands to head off possible unrest.

France is likely to oppose any move towards independence. Thousands of French troops and civil servants are based on Tahiti.

"French Polynesia is part of France's aspirations to have a presence in every ocean and any loss of territory would have an impact on their status as a power with global reach," said Mr Maclellan. "The territory also has a huge exclusive economic zone, with rights to fishing and sea bed minerals."

France won't let Polynesia become an independant nation? IMPERIALISM! IMPERIALISM! And let's not forget the Ivory Coast, recently invaded by the French occupied by French miliary forces under French "Peace-keeping" mandates!

Just so we can keep this straight, the Left, who supposedly hates Imperialism, wants us to get into bed (politically speaking) with France, who has no problem being imperialist.

Just another highlight of Leftist hypocrisy, folks. SSDD.

(That's Same S***, Different Day, for those who are wondering.)

Found all over the web, but most recently from DANEgerus.