Our "Friend", the Tyrannical Leader of Uzbekistan, Strikes Some as Much, Much Worse than Saddam Hussein

Bush picks our friends and they're almost always terrible, terrible people.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

One of the rebel leaders in his country says that he makes Saddam Hussein look like "a choir boy." And Sunday, British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said there had been a "clear abuse of human rights" in rioting in his country where the CBC reports police and troops have been accused by aid groups of killing as many as 700 people, including women and children.

But Uzbekistan's president Islam Karimov, who denies his troops opened fire on civilians, is "seen by Washington as an important ally in its so-called war against terrorism and provides it with a key air base in central Asia," and so he is unlikely to be strongly condemned, reports the Guardian.

But Radio Free Europe reports that last week State Department spokeman Richard Boucher said the US had in fact continued to criticize Tashkent's human rights record in the annual report issued by the State Department.

The Telegraph's editorial says the main reaction by the US government to what Mr. Straw had so quickly condemned as a human right abuse was for both sides to "work out their differences peacefully." This response, the Telegraph argues, undercuts President Bush's calls for the spread of democracy in other parts of the world.

Ah, but Mr. Bush doesn't want democracy abroad anymore than he wants it here; he just wants the words, to appeal to shallow minds while he rules absolutely and encourages other tyrants to do the same.