I couldn’t get past the caption of this Washington Post op-ed, “Most countries have given up their colonies. Why hasn’t America?” for the simple reason that it isn’t true. The following countries all continue to have colonies:
- Australia
- China
- Denmark
- France
- The Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Portugal
- Spain
- United Kingdom
- United States
That’s not an inclusive list. There are probably more. They may call them “territories”, “commonwealths”, or a variety of other terms but they’re colonies. Mostly, these colonies are a dotting of islands in the Pacific and Caribbean.
We’re just not unusual in this regard.
Here’s the question. This stuff isn’t that hard to check. Why did the WP run the op-ed?
“Why did the WP run the op-ed?”
Seriously?
Many of the journalists are young and haven’t been rigorously trained to use primary sources.