Orwell and British Anti-Imperialism

On a Straight Dope thread about elephants, someone posted a short story by George Orwell called "Shooting an Elephant"  I had never read it, it's a great story, and it's a look at his thoughts on British imperialism.

Here it is:

Shooting an Elephant

Hitch had been discussing how reading Orwell was something of an awakening to him, so the timing could not have been better.  (I was not looking for the Orwell--it was a thread about some elephant in the news.)  Hitchens even wrote a book called "Why Orwell Matters," which I now will have to read next.