The Beverly Hills of Military Bases?

What strategic address is worth the United States’ ignoring human rights abuses that are widely known to Western journalists? It’s inconvenient to point out obvious shortcomings, from wholesale corruption to beatings, detentions, political prosecutions and more than a few mysterious killings when you are trying to get a nice, strategically-close-to-Afghanistan Air Force base, in a Central Asian location. Okay, hey, it’s not as bad as some of the practices in neighboring nations, but… well… er … it’s embarrassing for us to ignore. Or is it?

The July 23^rd NY Times: “‘You know what this is for,’ Emilbek Kaptagaev recalled being told by the police officers who snatched him off the street. No other words, just blows to the head, then all went black. Mr. Kaptagaev, an opponent of Kyrgyzstan’s president, who is a vital American ally in the war in nearby Afghanistan, was found later in a field with a concussion, broken ribs and a face swollen into a mosaic of bruises…. Many opposition politicians and independent journalists have been arrested, prosecuted, attacked and even killed over the last year as the Kyrgyz president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, has consolidated control…”

In June, President Obama sent Bakiyev a letter congratulating his Kyrgyz counterpart for the latter’s tough stand on terrorism and his support for the war in Afghanistan. The American military let out a visible sigh of relief when Bakiyev approved the extension of the lease on a huge U.S. Air Force base just outside the capital city of Bishkek in Manas… albeit at a significantly increased rental payment. It was $17.4 million; now it will rise to $60 million a year (plus $100 million in other “aid.” Who said real estate prices are falling?! Human rights abuses? Hey, we need the base, and so, it is perfectly acceptable for a U.S. president – who ran for office on a campaign which at least in part pressed that America needed to retake the moral high ground shattered by a previous administration that openly support what many described as torture – to set principles aside for a great landing strip.

We just gotta have it! The July 25^th NY Times: “The United States believes that it must have a sizable military base in Central Asia to support the NATO mission in Afghanistan, especially now that supply routes through Pakistan are perilous. The American installation… is crowded with C-17 cargo planes and KC-135 tanker planes that readily reach the Afghan skies for mid-air refueling of fighters. As many as 30,000 military personnel cycle through the base monthly.”

Since Kyrgyzstan is a nation carved out of the former Soviet Union, needless to say that Russia, which still believes that these CIS republics are still her “sphere of influence,” was profoundly upset when this Air Force base lease extension was approved. Well, torn actually, since Afghani Muslim extremists threaten Russia as well, and Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev seem to have worked out a compromise, but still, it is a bit galling to have the American military so close to home. So what’s a Russian leader to do when demon America builds a base in her own backyard? Why not build add a nice new military base with nice long runways? So what if military real estate in getting rather pricey in the new, hot, chi chi Kyrgyzstan?

Russia’s got oil and the money that flows from it! Russian strongman, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, not quite as enamored of President Obama as is Medvedev, sent two high-ranking deputies to Bishkek to discuss securing another Russian base. They’ll probably succeed. The Times: “‘It is a symbolic action — symbolic of Russia’s presence, symbolic of its greatness, symbolic of its getting up off its knees,’ said Sergei A. Panarin, a prominent Central Asia specialist in Moscow. ‘It’s nostalgia for an empire.’”

As China battles Muslim Uighurs in its western Xinjiang province, which borders Central Asia, might they be the next supplicants for military land? Real estate prices seem to have nowhere to go but up! Sound familiar?

I’m Peter Dekom, and I approve this message.