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The history of American colonialism starts with the spanish-american war. We were "ceded" the islands of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.
Puerto Rico is a touchy subject. The people there are allowed to vote in presidential primaries but not the main election. They get one non-voting member of congress, but they pay taxes and are eligible for social security. Democrats would like to see them as a state more than republicans since they tend to vote that way.

check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponce_Massacre
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine-American_War

for a taste of colonialism American-style.

Thanks for the explanation. I'd only heard of the Spanish-American war by reading about Theodore Roosevelt - his role is generally made out to be rather heroic - not much about the circumstances and events surrounding the war. This puts a slightly different perspective on things.

To everyone else: sorry for my earlier post being way too long. I've been out of this forum-posting business for a while and I never was too good at it in the first place. ;)

I was thinking about it last night and I tried to imagine what an invasion by a culturally different superpower would be like. Needless to say, I couldn't, but it made me wonder about the way I think about the United States and it's role in world politics. I tend to sympathize with the idea of American exceptionalism, but it can definitely take an ugly direction.

About the chanting crowds.. do you estimate this represents general sentiment, or is the more or less an everpresent media that picks up whatever reeks of sensation? Most people here don't seem to agree with it.

There's a lot of people here, I imagine most of them weren't chanting, but as for the sentiment... I'd like to imagine we are not bloodthirsty, but I'm a pessimist. I imagine 50% agree, like most of our politics. :P More as you go south of course, but maybe people are seeing the consequences and reconsidering their stance.

Personally I think they did want to take him alive, but it was a SEAL with an itchy trigger finger, and now we gotta backpedal.

Long posts are okay. :)

I suspect that most Americans aren't that bloodthirsty, but that the situation (being in a crowd, being close in time to a big event) transforms them. Putting cameras in front of people can't help, either.