lbo-talk-digest V1 #5274

[Chris Doss]

I will get back on this later, as I am busy as hell right now, but I would
like to say that the author obviously knows fuck-all about Chechnya. I don't
want to appear like I'm supporting what I think is a poorly planned and
probably unsustainable Russian strategy in the region, but the idea that the
war in Chechnya is about separatism, when in fact Chechnya has had de facto
independence from Russia since 1996, and that foreigners are not deeply
involved (HELLO? Khattab?) is just ridiculous. Dear God, I don't even like
thinking what would happen if the hardcore separatists got into power. They
would be the Taliban squared.

Western leftists I think tend to graft Russia-Chechnya onto an
Israel-Palestine model out of sheer reflex (and ignorance). When I read this
kind of stuff my jaw just drops to the floor.

Chris Doss
The Russia Journal

HE MORAL GROUND

   TheGolem

Uzbekistan and the other "stans" are to Afghanistan and the U.S. what
Cambodia was to Vietnam and the United States.

The five (tongue twister) former republics of the Soviet Union, which
neighbor Afghanistan (two of them directly), i.e. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan (all of them "stans") are all
impoverished, fragile regimes of the former Soviet republics, now
controled by autocrats, and they are expecting BIG _rewards_ for their
cooperation with the only "real" remaining world SUPER-power, the United
Police States of America.

None of the "stans" are paragons of democracy or human rights. They all
impose censorship and limit political opposition. Their populations total
55 million. Their average per capital income is ONLY $766.  Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan have a direct border with Afghanistan and along with
Kaazakhstan have offered their territories for basing of U.S. troops and
Kyrgystan and Turkmenistan have provided airspace rights. The U.S. began
courting these states right after the September 11th attack.