Place your bets....

I don't see how anyone can stop laughing long enough to become a cynic in the face of our geopolitical antics. Afghanistan was dubbed the bear trap when Zbigniew Brzezinski led America, Britain and Saudi Arabia in a gambit to mire the then Soviet Union into a Viet Nam like conflict in Afghanistan. The intended result was the bankrupting of the Soviet Union. It's said to have worked and been, in the main, responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia is now likened to the wild west and lawless entrepreneurs employ every Yankee trader trick in the book to exploit victims. I've deep respect for the Russian people and the French both of whom exhibit regard for intellectualism and both of whom produce intellectuals of the first rank versus Americans who en mass treat intellectuals as suspect subversives. Now Russians are moving into war torn Iraq to capitalize on the bloody mess America and Britain have made of things. Reality TV for the overeducated. It just doesn't get any better.

for the Mullahs to use as an example of how the secular Satan-inspired Americans are out to destroy everything that's good, right and Islamic.

I'm starting to think the whole "Clash of Civilizations" thing may be accurate, if only as a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Amazing that a Russian has managed to open the first "Iraqasino" in a war-torn country where people kill each other over whose imaginary friend is better.

Next up: McDonalds. "Would you like Christian evangelism with that halal burger?"

Then what? A Niketown on every corner? AT&T flogging the Apple iRaq?

I'd wager they bust the bank. The gabling game there is Russian roulette, they'll dice with death on this crapshoot. Play their cards right though and they might just hit the jackpot.

Ok, I'll stop now..

This place is in Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It is literally a different country. They may not like the American style of "democracy" there but they want to live normally and they are trying to do just that.

It's a KGB GRU plan to profit on AK-47s sales to Iraq ?? Come on .