Non-hammer-and-sickle countries have done the same for centuries in order to amass wealth for its feudal lords. Only its targets used to be people in faraway lands whose humanity could be ignored in service of a 'civilizing mission', which just happened to tie in kindly with the interests of United Fruit Company, the East India Company, the South African diamond industry and countless others.

That arc of history is fast coming to an end as the easiest pickings for the feudal class today are right here at home. There's less resistance because the natives think their leaders are too civilized and their society too well-informed to end up on the pointy end of shareholder interests.

This is so dumb. Afghanistan? Eastern Europe? All the meddling everywhere from NK to Vietnam?