Cultural imperialism, in the raw

From the latest Harper's Weekly,

   Another soldier was unimpressed with the ruins of the ancient city of Ur,
   the birthplace of Abraham. "I've been all the way through this desert
   from Basra to here and I ain't seen one shopping mall or fast food
   restaurant," he told a British reporter. "These people got nothing. Even
   in a little town like ours of 2,500 people you got a McDonald's at one
   end and a Hardee's at the other."

Who cares about the *cradle of civilization* when there's no Hardee's? That
simply leaves me *speechless*.

Kendall Clark