As a supplement to the Central Asia discussion here's a link
to short documentary on Kyrgyzstan and the growing ethnic tensions at work
within that country. The documentary only hints at the real issues but also
captures the fact that there are forces at work within the society that are
generating division. The people are caught in the middle.
It's also interesting to note that while very few people
would want to defend or celebrate the USSR there's a practical issue to its
downfall. There's a lesson for all people. Empires are destructive in their
construction and yet can prove even more so in their deconstruction. Americans
are often shocked to hear many people's lives have been so upset that they
actually look back to the Soviet period as a relatively happy and stable one.
While it was hardly a party, the Brezhnev days and the final
decade in the 1980s were not the period under Stalin. I freely admit that my
own conceptions of the USSR in the 1980s were mistaken. I was a victim of US
propaganda. While it wasn't a nice place to live it wasn't quite what it was
portrayed to be either.
Is the US in reality what it portrays itself to be either
domestically or internationally? That's a rhetorical question, but there's a
lesson to be learned.
Here's the video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2QsUP-Ff1g
In addition I'm providing another link to a video about
Turkmenistan.
It's already outdated. Niyazov/Turkmenbashi died in 2006 and
his cult of personality died with him. However, he did much to shape and affect
the politics of the country. Central Asia's leaders are re-cast members of the
old Communist party. They're not communist, but they are authoritarian. The
countries are largely fictional creations and it almost takes a 'strongman' to
hold it together.
And again in terms of pragmatics, an open liberal society
and a free market mean there are more ways to infiltrate and manipulate the
country from the outside. Guatemala learned that lesson the hard way back in
the 1950s. Castro and Che took that lesson and applied what they learned to
Cuba. The US was trying to destroy them from within and without and the only
way they were going to hang onto power was by creating an authoritarian
society.
That doesn't excuse it or justify it. It's simply a cold
reality in the world of power politics. The United States exploiting and
corrupting free societies isn't excused either.
Nevertheless, Niyazov was a megalomaniacal monster. What's
interesting is that the US was more than happy to do business with him. What
would not be tolerated in other nations was easily endured by the US because
Turkmenistan has desired resources and sits in a geopolitically critical area.
I realize pragmatics come into play and almost always trump
ideology in the realm of geopolitics. There are those who disagree and yet that
position usually leads to either isolation or war. Or in this case it would
mean your rivals and adversaries would get the resources instead.
That's the real world or Realpolitik but it means the
integrity of the United States and its rhetoric is largely fiction and
propaganda for a gullible audience both at home and abroad.
Don't be fooled.
