The Price Of Speaking Out

I think this is a typical situation, the Uzbekistan security services could be called terrorists, I wonder why the US supports this brutal post-soviet police state. Anything to do with Afghanistan? I will let you decide.

politics.guardian.co.uk...


"Britain's ambassador in Tashkent, who mysteriously returned to this country last month on temporary sick leave, was the victim of threats from Downing Street related to his outspoken views on US foreign policy in the run-up to the Iraq invasion....

A senior source said the former ambassador had been put under pressure to stop his repeated criticisms of the brutal Karimov regime, accused among other things of boiling prisoners to death. The source said the pressure was partly "exercised on the orders of No 10", which found his outspokenness about the compromises Washington was prepared to make in its "war on terror" increasingly embarrassing in the lead up to the Iraq war."




[Edited on 18-10-2003 by Peace]

U.S. needed a military base in the region, pure and simple. Now all they have to do is sugar-coat it. I wonder how the locals are reacting to this?

Were you concerned about repression when the Russians were still there?

Looks like Muslims are still trying to take over Uzbekistan.

I would not want that.

If you are asking me NEO, then yes I would have been. However the Russians are not there today, the soviet empire is dead. Today we have one superpower and the US should lead by example, what is proved by aiding a brutal regime. Please enlighten me.

Sometimes I think you are insane NEO, other times when you highlight less talked about but just as important issues (Chechnya, Zimbabwe, Burma), I think you are one of the good guys. The hypocrisy makes me sick, but I personally feel justified in criticising the US, I have family who live there, friends who live there, friends from there that live here. Nothing ties me to Russia or Africa. I care about the US because I feel her actions have a huge influence on world events, more than Russia's war in Chechnya or Mugabe's sickening actions.

The US is the superpower, she leads, the rest are more likely to follow, however you will be aware that Putin only supports the war on terror because he has managed to include his war in chechnya. Makes you think.

Uzbekistan is just part of the problem. There are lots of states that are supported by the West that are draconian and terrorise their people. But there are just as many (if not more) which are even worse. The problem is that some don't only want to take power in thier own nations - they want much more.

So what is your suggestion then?
Leave them to it?

You will be guilty of causing more deaths and suffering through inaction. There are those here that would prefer that but they are only showing their ignorance and their inhumainty to their race. Would you stand by and do nothing at the site of a road accident? Or a mugging? Just because it's not your problem?

Nobody wants to take responsibility. They want to bury their head in the sand, yet they will be the first to complain when their children or their family are killed by extremists if the US government did nothing to stop it.
Look at 9/11. How many of these so called liberals are blaming the US government for inaction leading up to the event? The vast majority of them. Yet when action is taken they whine that it shouldn't be undertaken. They want their cake and to eat it but they want somebody else to go to the bakery and pay for it.

You want a perfect world? You have to earn it. Sometimes you have to take harsh measures to get it and unfortunately due to the nature of mankind this sometimes means taking the lesser of two evils. The alternative is to keep your nose out and let the one side of extremists win, but when you do that they will come after you anyway and you're back even further behind square one.

In the meantime these regimes will cause more pain and hardship and you will be responsible for this by not acting.
It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

It's OK saying that a superpower like the US should lead by example, but it has led by example. It has been a free democracy for hundreds of years and it's people have been prosperous.

Tell me. Who took up that example?