Haroon on Kyrgyzstan

Haroon has a nice post on Kyrgyzstan over at avari/nameh.

What I especially like is the following:

Firstly, while we might, at times, harshly criticize foreign policy, let us remember that we do not live in a dream world, but a real world. America is better as a superpower than what China, Russia, or even India, is today; would a Muslim, would a person living under a dictatorship, rather have China supporting his government or America?

There is the visceral reaction to past and current American transgressions, but nonetheless, as China becomes more geopolitically ambitious, we will become more and more worried by its atrocious human rights record, as demonstrated by Tibet and Xinjiang.

He says more on this point, and I highly recommend checking it out.

When the likes of Indymedia UK think me all kinds of dreadful things such as an imperialist, a fascist, a blood-sucking neoconservative, wicked Republican, etc. for my advocacy of US involvement in Central Asia, it’s exactly for the reasons Haroon brings up. So long as we can secure better outcomes for Central Asians through our relations than could Russia or China in our place, I am all for being involved.

This post was written by...

Nathan Hamm – author of 2040 posts on Registan.net.

Nathan founded Registan.net in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural factors shape risks and opportunities. Follow him on Twitter or drop him a line.