Girl Scout Cookies

[minionofmidas]

Yes, and does anyone know if Girl Scout troops in other countries sell them, or is it a uniquely American thing?

Well, let's see... I've only ever come across the concept in American cultural imperialist media.

The wikipedia article on them states categorically "Girl Scout cookies are cookies sold by Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA)", so that sounds like they don't even do it in Canada (as that would be sure to get into the wiki article).
Articles on Girl Scouts / Guides generally don't mention cookies at all, though they're highly technical articles in either German and English and might not be expected to. The (English) article on GCUSA mentions them in passing in one sentence.
The "girl scout cookies" article also has versions only in English, Simple English and Bahasa Indonesia.

So yeah, on balance I'd say I'm reasonably certain this form of exploitation is American only. As yet.

[minionofmidas]

With the Girl Scouts having been appropriated as political footballs by the far right over the issue of abortion and sexuality,

?!

If you're associating girl scouts with sexuality, you really need to get laid, man. 

Not that kind of "sexuality".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Scouts_of_the_USA (jump to the "issues" section)

[minionofmidas]

It was a legitimate question. There's no reason to consider knowledge about difference between Scouts in different countries required or anything.

There are no "Girl Scouts" in Germany, btw. We have three different Scouts organizations, two of them with links to the Catholic resp. Lutheran churches, formally united in some umbrella organization for purposes of membership in the Scout Movement world bodies*, but all of them have been coed for the past forty years (and the nondenominational one since the immediate postwar era. This is a simplifying summary, it's even more complicated actually.)

*membership in the Scout Movement world body and the Girl Scout Movement world body, that is.