Demagogue

I don't know if the events in Uzbekistan are getting onto U.S. television. I'd call them "shocking events," except that no one who's been paying any attention to Islam Karimov could be shocked.

When it comes to rebutting the latest excuse for Mess o' Potamia--that it's about freeing people from a brutal dictator--I don't think the point that we haven't gone after every dictator is conclusive. But when it comes to Karimov, even the State Department admits we're dealing with brutality and dictatorship of the highest order, and we're not just failing to bring him down: we're propping him up. And, probably, borrowing his torture-loving security forces to interrogate our prisioners through "rendition."

When Uzbeks turn to radical Islam as an organizing force against Karimov and attack American targets, please, no one ask, "Why do they hate us?"