Why Uzbekistan Revolts Matter

The press is telling us that countless bodies line the streets in various parts of Uzbekistan, Mr. Bush's so-called "great" ally in the War in Error. The Times reports hundreds dead, and the fight getting worse.

Many of those fighting are fighting because of the brutality of the government. Uzbekistan is not only Mr. Bush's ally, it's where we often send "detainees" to be tortured to elicit confessions, sometimes to crimes they never committed.

I look at the faces of the children and young adults there, and I see desperation and fear. I wonder how we can partner with this country when it treats its own citizens so badly. But Mr. Bush, of course, has no problem with treating his own citizens badly, so he's not going to lose a moment of his vaulted 10 hours of sleep a night worrying about an Uzbek.

Elsewhere, more die every day in Afghanistan's anti-US protests. Remember how we pronounced the "democracy" we had created there? Now we fire on the people who took those words seriously and want the U.S. to leave.