Kyrgyz leader threatens expulsion of US troops

[WhiteTara]

the extortion payments are going up. We've got a great coalition.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/19/news/bishkek.php

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev threatened Wednesday to expel American troops if the United States did not agree by June 1 to pay more for stationing forces in the Central Asian nation.

"Kyrgyzstan reserves the right to consider ending the agreement" on the deployment of U.S. forces in the former Soviet republic, where they are based for operations in neighboring Afghanistan, Bakiyev said on state television.

He said the government could terminate the agreement if talks on new financial terms of the U.S. military deployment did not end successfully before June 1.

Bakiyev's administration, which came to power after a March 2005 uprising, has sought to increase revenues from the U.S.-led base set up in December 2001 at Kyrgyzstan's main civilian airport near the capital, Bishkek.

His statement sends a worrying signal to Washington, which lost its other base in the strategic Central Asian region last year when neighboring Uzbekistan expelled U.S. troops following Western criticism of the government's bloody May 2005 crackdown on demonstrators in the country's east.
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we have such good friends in the world. Countries we used to shun for their terrible ways are now able to extort money for us to join them in their terror. Yikes

[BillZBubb]

1. Don't go on any airplane rides, Mr. Bakiyev!

Or helicopter either. Those things can have problems.

[Selatius]

2. We are doing business with dictators

The reason why so many people hate us is because we did business with dictators who oppressed them. Maybe it was for oil. Maybe it was for corporate profit margins. The point is they remember who it was that stole their freedom, tortured them, and terrorized them, and they remember the weapons used were made in the USA. We've done business with dictators from Suharto to Pinochet.

[enigma000]

5. well, there was that Cold War thing too.

Shortly after that, Bakiyev said that Kyrgyzstan could begin discussing whether U.S. forces were needed in light of the situation in Afghanistan, which he said was stabilizing.


huh???????

[Selatius]

6. True, but it doesn't excuse the immorality of what we did.

The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. There are consequences for every action, including supporting dictators who just happen to advocate another brand of oppression beside the authoritarian socialist kind. Afghanistan and Iraq of today are a legacy of things done in the past.

[0007]

3. Maybe he didn't like Condi's deal

[endarkenment]

4. The 'stans quickly learned that these sort of guests

stay forever and start telling you how to run your house.

[smacky44]

7. Damn, we have troops everywhere!! keeping folks employed I guess?

[cliss]

8. Oh, so we're cheating on our rent, eh?

Ghod, what new humiliations will Bush bring this once proud nation to? It's so embarrassing. I remember reading about the other "eviction" from Uzbekistan. Rumsfailed jumped on a plane the next day to try and talk them out of it. He got nowhere (doesn't surprise me, with Rumsfeld's "charm").

And you know the worst part? They broadcast this on their national TV: "Bakiyev said on state television".

Chavez did the same thing recently. He threatened on Venezuelan TV to "Throw you out of Venezuela, Mister" (Browndump).

The damage we do in other countries is EXPONENTIAL when they share it with their TV viewers in TV land. Doesn't Washington get it?

[ShortnFiery]

9. Trouble in Paradise?

Kyrgyzstan?!?