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Al-Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas - "have stepped into the vacuum created by the failure of Arab governments to stand up to Israel and protect their countries from Western pressure." In other words, privatization of failed state policy.

An inevitable reaction to Uzbekistan's despotic regime has been growing armed resistance by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). After 9/11, the U.S. wrongly declared the IMU a terrorist organization, attacked its Afghan bases, and reportedly killed its deputy leader, Juma Namangani. The IMU, and other local militants, all branded "terrorist groups," seek to overthrow Central Asia's communist regimes, or liberate Sinkiang from repressive Chinese rule.

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These articles about all the Stans should be burned in our memories. (For one thing, they often could serve as handy answers to trolls who appear on babble: see, eg, Margolis's comparison of U.S. policy towards Cuba and Uzbekistan, in the context of the dramatically worse human-rights situation in the latter.) More important, the confrontations in Central Asia, even more than the related crises in the Middle East, are potentially threatening to us all. One day soon the powerful will need to peddle historical forgetfulness of current outrages because one day soon they are going to be forced to military intervention against the predictable results of the outrages they are now complicit in committing.

I thought that this thread might be a good place to try an experiment inspired by Mr Magoo. I am going to see whether I can describe the president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, in civil terms.

As you may know, this loyal ally of USian president Bush has banned all opposition parties because every party but his, he says, is made up of terrorists. Well, that seems reasonable, doesn't it, when you remember that we are in a war against terror after all.

Some have used intemperate language to pass judgement on Mr Karimov's personal foibles -- his penchant for boiling political prisoners alive, for instance -- but focusing on such details seems unduly partisan, and besides, it's morbid. There is no civil way to describe torture by blowtorch, so best that babblers keep to the high road by giving this good friend and "partner" of Donald Rumsfeld the benefit of the doubt.

And as this is apparently only a trial run, would those who are attempting to take the high road keep a few notes about the experience, specifically:

1. Did you feel as though your ability to be critical was hindered by civility? Were you unable to make your point?

2. Do you have a vague, unsettling feeling, like there's something you meant to do but didn't?

3. Are unresolved feelings spilling over into other areas of your life? For example, after criticizing Gordon Campbell in a mature manner, do you find yourself calling your cat a "fucking Neo-Con drunk-driving prick"?

Didn't that all go down in the late 90's?

Perhaps I'm thinking of someone else. That was a good thing, no?

UZBEKISTAN: PRESIDENTIAL DECREE ON INVESTMENTS INTO OIL AND GAS SECTOR

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U.S. MAILING ADDRESS:

U.S. EMBASSY TASHKENT - COMMERCIAL SERVICE,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
7110 TASHKENT PLACE
WASHINGTON, DC, 20521-7110
TELEPHONE: [998](71) 120-67-05 OR 120-67-06
FAX: [998](71) 120-66-92 OR 120-66-76
E-MAIL: [email protected]

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But an Uzbek human rights groups accused the government of using the attacks as a pretext to step up its campaign against religious Muslims and said authorities were detaining innocent people.

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[ 07 April 2004: Message edited by: Cueball ]

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Originally posted by skdadl:
These articles about all the Stans should be burned in our memories.

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We residents of a-place-to-stan (a.k.a. Ontario) should be careful about cute names.

This -stan is formed from the Iranian root *st–, “to stand, stay,” and means “place (where one stays), home, country.” Iranian peoples have been the principal inhabitants of the geographical region occupied by these states for over a thousand years. The names are compounds of –stan and the name of the people living there.