An easy target, of course, but I'm a little off today

The man whose understanding of our country's questionable history of imperialism is inversely proportional to the smug feeling of manliness he gets out of his surname, Charles, Krauthammer, knocks one out of the park today. Really, a must read for anyone who wants a concrete example of how ridiculous the hand wringing to Obama's recent trip has been.

Matthew Yglesias pretty much sums up what I found to be insane in Krauthammer's understanding of Maliki's endorsement: we, the American people, should vote for McCain because he is the candidate with the cojones to force the Iraqi government into a relationship with us which is repugnant to them.

Actually fuck that, don't read this article. It's smarmy and sounds like a freshman debate position paper written by an overweight ex-video game clerk with snickers stains on his shirt. Spare yourself, read only this paragraph:

McCain, like George Bush, envisions the U.S. seizing the fruits of victory of a bloody and costly war by establishing an extensive strategic relationship that would not only make the new Iraq a strong ally in the war on terror but would also provide the U.S. with the infrastructure and freedom of action to project American power regionally, as do U.S. forces in Germany, Japan and South Korea.

The stand out euphemism for conquest and imperialist dominance is "fruits of victory" naturally.

But hey, can anyone give two examples of how the situation in Iraq is different than those in Germany, Japan or South Korea?