U.S. Again Sides with Dictatorship over Democracy
Central Asia provides a case study in the gaping chasm between our high-flying freedom-and-democracy rhetoric and a grim reality in which we cut sleazy deals with thuggish tyrants. We abandoned the democratic role model Akayev created in Kyrgyzstan because it had no direct role in America's strategy of "total energy dominance." We cozied up to the murderous dictators of oil- and gas-rich Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan even though we knew their citizens despised them for funneling their nations' wealth into Swiss bank accounts while most people starved.
Now Central Asia's only democracy is history. The dictatorships are cracking down on Muslims guilty of nothing more than wearing a beard and a skullcap. They're turning moderates into radicals. That sound you hear is Osama laughing. Again.
- posted by geoff @ #