Intelligence Brief: Uzbekistan---(Rummy's 'lilypad' strategy weaknesses)

[Gloria]

From the new World Media Watch up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com



2//Power and Interest News Report, US 23 June, 2005

http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=318&language_id=1



INTELLIGENCE BRIEF: UZBEKISTAN

By Dr Michael A Weinstein

The announcement on June 16 that Uzbekistan had banned night flights into and out of the US air base in Khanabad marks the first serious geostrategic fallout from Washington's ambivalent response to the violent suppression by Tashkent of mass protests against the regime of President Islam Karimov in May in the city of Andijan.

The Khanabad base, which supports US military operations in neighboring Afghanistan, is a key component in US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's redeployment policy, which envisions the substitution of large concentrations of troops in Europe and South Korea with smaller "lily-pad" deployments in weaker acquiescent states in northeast Africa and Eurasia. The aims of Rumsfeld's plan are to protect strategic energy supplies, curb destabilizing moves by Islamic revolutionaries throughout the vast region, and counter initiatives unfavorable to Washington's interests by Moscow and Beijing.

As an immediate result of Tashkent's action, Washington has had to move some aircraft to Afghanistan and mount resupply operations from its base in Kyrgyzstan, adding to expenses and detracting from efficiency. From a longer-term perspective, the flight limitations are a signal to Washington that the Karimov regime is prepared to sacrifice US-Uzbek relations and, perhaps, even to eliminate the US military presence in Uzbekistan, if Washington does not give it a free hand in its efforts to suppress dissent.

Tashkent denied on June 18 that its slap at Washington was related to Andijan and said the flight limitations had been in the works for a long time and Washington "knew why". Whatever the case, the restrictions, which are neither decisive nor final, reveal underlying weaknesses in the Rumsfeld strategy, which depends for its success on compliant governments where the lily pads are located.

MORER

[patrice]

1. ". . . . suppress dissent."

Civil Liberties? or Genocide?

What about Democracy in Uzbekistan?

So how many "lillypads" are there supposed to be? Can we give one up and stay out of other people's politics?

[LynnTheDem]

2. Listed first; "protect strategic energy supplies"

We IGNORE MASSACRES in order to protect strategic energy supplies. OIL.

Wake the fuck up, America.