- "I will blog about the situation in Uzbekistan, supporting call for sanctions on Uzbek cotton on September 1st but only if 20 other people will too."
It's one of those dodgy Central Asian regimes with a weird name ending in "stan", and few people know much about it. Hell, I'll freely admit I know little about it beyond the fact it's politically repressed, protestors have been shot there (accused of being terrorists), it's effectively a police state and we turn a blind eye because it's one of our "key allies". A key ally to whom we supply arms and training for government enforcers, despite the highly suspect nature of the regime in charge...
This strikes me as an ideal opportunity to find out more. Sign up. Start with the Wikipedia page. Check out the archives at Publius Pundit and Registan (plus the sidebar links at the latter) and let's spread the word. (Good work, Disillusioned Kid)
(Note: I'm not too sure about sanctions being the solution here (it hardly worked against Saddam, after all - or Castro, for that matter). They have a tendency to hit the poorest worst, and they're having a bad enough time as it is. Others think differently. Either way, a swell of public outrage that our government is helping this highly unpleasant regime maintain power could well do some good in the current climate. They want to prove they have the moral high ground to kick off their anti-terrorism measures? Fine, let them prove it. Let's get our own house in order - and that includes the friends we keep.)
2 Comments:
Thanks for the support. Incidentally, part of the reason why sanctions might be a realistic possibility at this point is because Uzbekistan isn't a key ally anymore.
Karimov seems to have decided to throw his eggs in the Russian (and to some extent Chinese) basket. About a week and a half ago he had the US evicted from their base in Karshi-Khanabad (actually they've got 180 days to leave, but you see what I'm getting at). Which hasn't gone down so well.
As for sanctions, I share some of your concerns Let's raise some publicity about the idea, generate some serious debate about it and go from there.
Bloody hell - things happen in far off lands and I miss them completely...
I'm not comfortable with the sanctions idea, but Murray makes a good case. I'm just worried about the short-term impact on the poor buggers who earn a pretty much insufficient living out of the cotton trade. An insufficient living is better than no living, after all...
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