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They were supposed to pay the Uzbeks for access to the base (an old Soviet base) for the Afghanistan war. In the mid-2000s, when it came time to pay the Uzbeks

by Frondo 7y ago

They were supposed to pay the Uzbeks for access to the base (an old Soviet base) for the Afghanistan war. In the mid-2000s, when it came time to pay the Uzbeks (about $500 million, if memory serves), the Americans decided the Uzbeks were terriss and opted not to pay. The Uzbeks hated the US after that. Absolutely loathed. (I ended up living there for a year at the end of 2005, so my recollection of details around the finances might be spotty, but my recollection of having Uzbeks explain why it was so fucked up what we did, I will live with forever.)

Rebelgecko 7y ago
The US and Uzbekistan initially signed an agreement that let them use the base for free. Then the Uzbeks wanted money, so we started paying ~$20million a year. Relations got really bad after the Andijan Massacre. The US government (state department and congress) was REALLY critical of Uzbekistan and talked a lot about human rights abuses and cutting aid. Maybe that's where you're getting the $500 million figure from? Canceled aid payments that were conditional on the government making humans rights improvements, not the use of the base? Anyways, 2 months after Andijan and one day after the first planeload of refugees got a flight to Romania, the US received an eviction notice. We continued to pay the rest of the lease, and actually delivered a final $22.9 million payment after we got the eviction notice, days before the final Americans left.[1] If you want to read a description of events that is still biased, but in the other direction you can see the Air Force's timeline of what happened [2]. [1]: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/12/why-did-we-send-millions-to-a-dictator-who-kicked-us-out.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/12/why-did-we-send-... [2]: https://www.airforcemag.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Documents/2010/September%202010/0910out.pdf https://www.airforcemag.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Documents/20...
- droithomme 7y ago
  Very interesting, thanks. Based on these revelations about the cancer, they did us a massive favor when they evicted us.
- Frondo 7y ago
  In the era of John Yoo and Dick Cheney, the Uzbeks felt like any US posturing on human rights was just that -- posturing. They were also resentful at the US treating their sovereignty as a new-millennium extension of the Great Game. As for the $500 million, you're right, I don't remember what they said it was for, it's been close to 15 years.

by Frondo 7y ago

Rebelgecko 7y ago

The US and Uzbekistan initially signed an agreement that let them use the base for free. Then the Uzbeks wanted money, so we started paying ~$20million a year. Relations got really bad after the Andijan Massacre. The US government (state department and congress) was REALLY critical of Uzbekistan and talked a lot about human rights abuses and cutting aid. Maybe that's where you're getting the $500 million figure from? Canceled aid payments that were conditional on the government making humans rights improvements, not the use of the base? Anyways, 2 months after Andijan and one day after the first planeload of refugees got a flight to Romania, the US received an eviction notice. We continued to pay the rest of the lease, and actually delivered a final $22.9 million payment after we got the eviction notice, days before the final Americans left.[1] If you want to read a description of events that is still biased, but in the other direction you can see the Air Force's timeline of what happened [2]. [1]: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/12/why-did-we-send-millions-to-a-dictator-who-kicked-us-out.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/12/why-did-we-send-... [2]: https://www.airforcemag.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Documents/2010/September%202010/0910out.pdf https://www.airforcemag.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Documents/20...

droithomme 7y ago
Very interesting, thanks. Based on these revelations about the cancer, they did us a massive favor when they evicted us.
Frondo 7y ago
In the era of John Yoo and Dick Cheney, the Uzbeks felt like any US posturing on human rights was just that -- posturing. They were also resentful at the US treating their sovereignty as a new-millennium extension of the Great Game. As for the $500 million, you're right, I don't remember what they said it was for, it's been close to 15 years.