The explosions in Uzbekistan brought to my mind the US mumbo-jombo
about "bringing democracy to the Middle East." US has troops now in
most of the former Soviet Central Asian republics. Which are all
dictatorships, whose presidents - except Akajev of Kyrgyzstan - are
former communist bosses, who have maneuvered themselves to the
job for life. They are pretty much Saddam Husseins without the
ambition, or light-weight Stalins.

So, group of undemocratic dictatorships and a lone superpower
preaching the gospel of democracy. And the superpower has bases in
most of these countries. So why not use this position to "bring
democracy to Central Asia"? Certainly US have enough firepower in
the area, if diplomacy fails....

Do the people of Central Asia deserve less than the people of Middle
East? Of course, there isn´t a petty tyrannical state that controls the
White House in Central Asia...