The U.S. and Uzbekistan

Just a few weeks ago, liberals lauded the State Department's decision to freeze $18 million of aid to Uzbekistan. However, it now looks like that was just a radar blip in overall administration policy. At least one senior analyst believes that Uzbekistan will host some of the American forces being redeployed under President Bush's new plans. At the same time, Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced we would be giving Uzbekistan an additional $21 million in military aid. We can talk about whether this is the right policy, but at least in Central Asia, democracy promotion is clearly not the Bush administration's top priority.