that I know, but the point of the question is what is out actual interest in little brown third-world island countries. As far as I can see the awnser is none. This gay zog empire cannot keep holding on to areas of interest because we fought japs in the 40s.
Discussion
Having spent some time in the PI previous to Mt. Pinatubo, I have something of a soft spot for those particular brown people.
While yes, they are classic South East Asians, their culture has a hundreds of years of Catholicism grafted onto it. It's an odd mixture.
And we've shed blood with them. Something that they haven't forgotten.