Day 182: Uzbekistan

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uz.html

Discuss.

[minionofmidas]

A doubly landlocked dictatorship. Kinda like Liechtenstein then.

[WMS]

Heh. Horrible government, which kicked the U.S. out after we criticized them for massacring their political opponents. Said government then received tons of support from Russia and China, neither of whom gets nearly the amount of sh!t that Bush did when we allied with them for the purposes of overthrowing the Taliban. Events like that make me every bit as cynical about the left's foreign policy as about the right's.

[minionofmidas]

Heh. Horrible government, which kicked the U.S. out after we criticized them for massacring their political opponents. Said government then received tons of support from Russia and China, neither of whom gets nearly the amount of sh!t that Bush did when we allied with them for the purposes of overthrowing the Taliban. Events like that make me every bit as cynical about the left's foreign policy as about the right's.

Who says Russia and China's foreign policy is supported by the Left, though?

[WMS]

Heh. Horrible government, which kicked the U.S. out after we criticized them for massacring their political opponents. Said government then received tons of support from Russia and China, neither of whom gets nearly the amount of sh!t that Bush did when we allied with them for the purposes of overthrowing the Taliban. Events like that make me every bit as cynical about the left's foreign policy as about the right's.

Who says Russia and China's foreign policy is supported by the Left, though?

They don't seem to support it. But they sure are a lot quieter about it than about that of the U.S., which is sad given that Russia and China do more to undermine human rights, democracy, and liberty in general than anyone else on the planet.

[minionofmidas]

The very presence of a dictatorship as large as China certainly does a lot to undermine that, yeah.
Of course they're quieter about what some foreign government does than about what their own government does - that's called basic human decency. Clean your own house first and all that...

[WMS]

The very presence of a dictatorship as large as China certainly does a lot to undermine that, yeah.
Of course they're quieter about what some foreign government does than about what their own government does - that's called basic human decency. Clean your own house first and all that...

They screw up the Freedom House statistics horribly!

OK, that might work for the American Left, but what about the International (especially the European) Left? The absolute pits of humanity usually have Chinese or Russian arms flowing to them...

[minionofmidas]

Guess I should add that "Uzbekistan is a horrible dictatorship, and we're supporting that" did, of course, also serve as a cynical talking point to partisan Democrats in the US who didn't, actually, care all that much about what their government was doing in Uzbekistan, as long as it made that government look bad.
So if that's what you meant, you're right.

(Your post came in before I could post.
As to Europe, you seem to underestimate the influence your government wields here. In a sense and to a certain degree, your government is also my government. When people say the rest of the world should get to vote in US presidential elections, they're not being serious, but they're not entirely kidding either.)

[WMS]

Guess I should add that "Uzbekistan is a horrible dictatorship, and we're supporting that" did, of course, also serve as a cynical talking point to partisan Democrats in the US who didn't, actually, care all that much about what their government was doing in Uzbekistan, as long as it made that government look bad.
So if that's what you meant, you're right.

(Your post came in before I could post.
As to Europe, you seem to underestimate the influence your government wields here. In a sense and to a certain degree, your government is also my government. When people say the rest of the world should get to vote in US presidential elections, they're not being serious, but they're not entirely kidding either.)

Actually, yeah, that's pretty much what I meant. I despise the regime there as much as anyone, but in 2001-2, we really did need their bases to attack the Taliban. The world doth suck sometimes.

OK, I wasn't aware of that at all. I thought we didn't have any influence over there anymore.