Tuesday, October 11, 2005

US Gets Approval to Stay at Manas Air Base

This is really good news for two reasons.

The first is obvious. Since we no longer have access to any bases in Uzbekistan, we need to find a viable alternative in the region.

The second has to do with doing business with 'bad guys', and the national hypocrisy of going to war to dispose one dictator, while doing business with others. When the Tulip revolution removed President Akyev one corrupt government fell. One of the demands of the new government is an account of how much money the US paid to the old government, and who we paid it to. With time we can see just how much we spent making this dictator and his friends and family very rich.

Trying to justify the invasion of Iraq by denouncing Saddams evil nature, while at the same time doing business with Akyev or Karimov made us look ridiculous, at least the obvious contradiction may be passing. With this change we will have made some progress in the goal to do what we claim to stand for. Unfortunately, these changes didn't occur at the bidding of the US, but by actions outside our control.

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