...and spreading freedom

AP ran one of those heartwarming human interest stories over the weekend. It was about how some US soldiers in the Kurdish area of Iraq put together donated equipment, organized two teams of teenagers - and taught them baseball.

"Strike three!" yelled the umpire, U.S. Army Capt. Deron Haught. "You're out!"

And what may have been Iraq's first organized baseball game was over, with the red-shirted Nawruz - the Kurdish word for New Year's Day - beating Brusik, or Team Lightning, 10-7.

Now, there's nothing inherently wrong that I can see with this, even though I'm sure superior officers smiled nodded sagely to each other about a success at "winning hearts and minds" and the rest of the blah blah blah. This, however got me:

Haught, commander of a platoon that occupies a small base in this town 205 miles north of Baghdad, said the soldiers hope America's favorite pastime catches on in Iraq.

"I'd like to see one of them get a scholarship at West Virginia University and then go and play for the Pirates," said Haught, 37, a Pittsburgh fan who hails from Harrisville, W.Va.

It's not an impossible dream. Baseball has thrived in some countries where U.S. troops have deployed, including Cuba, Panama and the Dominican Republic.

Yeah! There ya go! The benefits of imperialism!

"We'll spit through the streets of the cities we wreck
"And we'll find you a leader that you can't elect.
"Those treaties we signed were a pain in the neck."

We may have given you blood and poverty and dictatorship, but by gosh we gave you baseball! And doesn't that make it all worthwhile?