Monday, May 16, 2005
Uzbekistan crackdown...
The crackdown in Uzbekistan by forces of their assface President, Islam Karimov, has reached massacre proportions. The death toll reportedly numbers in the hundreds (and I say "reportedly" because Karimov has cracked down on the media as well, preventing them from telling the story.) Said crackdown should be taken as Exhibit "A" when evaluating Karimov's claim that all the violence was the result of "Islamic extremists", who are a shadowy group of people that Karimov also tends to blame when his wife notices that no one put the toilet seat down. (Not that such creatures don't exist in Uzbekistan, but Karimov tends to overstate their involvement with protests against his regime. One doesn't need to be an Islamic extremist to think Karimov is a repressive douchebag. One simply needs to know what a repressive douchebag looks like, then look at Karimov. The resemblance is striking.)
The crackdown is continuing, with the rounding up of the usual suspects, similar to the aftermath of China's Tiananmen Square massacre. People in the line of fire are trying to flee to Krygyzstan. (A good answer to the question "How do you know when your country has gone to hell?" would be "When dropping everything and hightailing it to Krygyzstan sounds like a good idea.") The current U.S. response is currently insufficient, but at least moving in the right direction. A sad end to a protest that seemed to hold promise for real reform in Uzbekistan.
The crackdown is continuing, with the rounding up of the usual suspects, similar to the aftermath of China's Tiananmen Square massacre. People in the line of fire are trying to flee to Krygyzstan. (A good answer to the question "How do you know when your country has gone to hell?" would be "When dropping everything and hightailing it to Krygyzstan sounds like a good idea.") The current U.S. response is currently insufficient, but at least moving in the right direction. A sad end to a protest that seemed to hold promise for real reform in Uzbekistan.
