I had to chuckle, reading news reports of Hamid Karzai, the “democratically elected” puppet of Afghanistan, trekking to Britain to kiss the pinky ring of the Queen. Karzai made some fairly ludicrous statements to the corporate media, for instance: “We in Afghanistan can feel that pain [of the London bombing victims] perhaps better than any other country.” I wonder if the British ruling elite can feel the “pain” of average Afghans. I don’t recall the British ever apologizing or compensating the Afghans for inflicting not only pain and suffering on average Afghans, but plenty of mass murder as well. Afghanistan has a long history of war, poverty, and material destruction—and the Brits did their best to increase these horrific conditions. For instance, in 1838, the British army, crossing over from India, invaded Afghanistan in a brazen attempt to install a puppet government amenable to British economic interests and as a blunt to Czarist Russian interests. In 1878, Britain invaded again, making sure to kill a whole lot of Afghans who resisted the occupation of their country. On 3 May 1919, a third war of resistance broke out (a jihad was declared) against the Brits and the response was Brig-Gen. Dyer ordering his Gurkha (Indian) troops to open fire on an unarmed crowd. If Hamid Karzai was indeed a representative of his people, he would make mention of these crimes to the Queen and demand recompense. Instead, as a lackey, he will be tickled pink to bow and scrape before the Queen who is the symbol of centuries of British imperialism.