Christopher Flavelle on Slate asks whether Uzbekistan is going to be the first test of Obama's rhetoric about dictators. Uzbekistan has an exceptionally repressive dictator, who apparently boiled two people to death a couple years ago. Flavelle wonders whether Obama is going to have to cut a deal with him in order to re-open an airbase that the Bush administration closed in 2005 after the Uzbek military massacred several hundred demonstrators. The airbase is apparently necessary because Kyrgystan just revoked our ability to use a base there, and is needed as the US ramps up its efforts in Afghanistan with 17,000 new soldiers. Apparently it's becoming much more difficult to use bases in Pakistan due to the new president who is somewhat more lukewarm to the US than his predecessor Musharraf.
I'm not entirely sure why the Uzbek base is necessary. Kyrgystan doesn't actually abut Afghanistan, so any troops or materiel offloaded there would have to pass through Tajikistan anyway. Also, why can't we just land people in Afghanistan, since we're allied with the government there. Much of our air-power comes from carriers based in the Arabian sea. I guess I'm not clear on why we can't just ramp up our bases in Afghanistan instead of getting back in bed with the atrocious Uzbek regime.
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