07-29-2005, 11:31 PM
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#117
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Read? I only know how to write.
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 11,933
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Originally Posted by tw
Oil is a major part of the strategy. But it is a strategy that is Central Asia wide. ... It is why the US is courting so many K'stan nations.
It is why SCO (Shanghai Co-operation Organization) exists. From The Economist of 9 July 2005:
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Judging from the activities of the member states (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan), three principles define that new order: slaking China's thirst for energy, protecting member states as they tryrannise dissidents and curbing America's influence in the region.
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Now a new twist in the K'stan drama. From the Washington Post of 30 July 2005
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U.S. Evicted From Air Base In Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan formally evicted the United States yesterday from a military base that has served as a hub for combat and humanitarian missions to Afghanistan since shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, ...
Scores of flights have used K2 monthly. It has been a landing base to transfer humanitarian goods that then are taken by road into northern Afghanistan, particularly to Mazar-e Sharif -- with no alternative for a region difficult to reach in the winter. K2 is also a refueling base with a runway long enough for large military aircraft.... Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld returned this week from Central Asia, where he won assurances from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that the United States can use its bases for operations in Afghanistan. U.S. forces use Tajikistan for emergency landings and occasional refueling, but it lacks good roads into Afghanistan. Kyrgyzstan does not border Afghanistan.
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