It's not bad enough that Bush pretends he wants to spread freedom around the world but then coddles ugly repressive regimes like Uzbekistan, which boils alive dissidents and is one of the nastiest governments in the world. But offer Bush a military base and he becomes dizzy with delight. So we've provided aid to this horrible government and when it gunned down hundreds of its own people and NATO countries wanted to investigate, Bush blocked it because he's a stand-up guy and we can't have an investigation into terror interfering with the war on terror.
But it turns out we're not just shielding Uzbekistan. According to the New York Times, we've armed and trained the very units that were involved in the massacre of hundreds of innocent Uzbekistan citizens. Mind you, the NYT published our implicit involvement in such a horror on the dead news day of Saturday.
The United States has worked closely with Uzbekistan, a corrupt and autocratic state with a chilling human rights record, in the fight against international terrorism. It has also tried to professionalize the Uzbek military, improve its border security and help secure materials that could be used in nuclear, chemical or biological weapons - areas of engagement that American officials say are of clear national interest.
But such policies can backfire, improving the martial abilities of units that commit crimes against Uzbek citizens, and associating the United States with repression in the eyes of Uzbek people and the Islamic world. Uzbekistan is an overwhelmingly Muslim country with severe restrictions on freedoms of worship and expression.
But actually this massacre is just another success story. Uzbekistan described it as "a counterterrorism operation." Boy, they learn fast.
