Realpolitik would ve suggested Rice keep her trap shut and visit Karimov and shake his hands& (ala Rumsfeld in the 80s).

You mean, like this?

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 25, 2006; Page A01

Sitting in a prison cell halfway around the planet, an Egyptian opposition leader forced President Bush this month to confront the question of how serious he was when he vowed to devote his second term to “ending tyranny in our world.”

Ayman Nour, who dared challenge Egypt’s authoritarian leader in manipulated elections, was sentenced on Christmas Eve to five years on what U.S. officials consider bogus charges. Inside the administration, a debate ensued over whether to shelve a new trade agreement with Egypt in protest. In the end, the trade talks were suspended and an Egyptian negotiating team invited to Washington last week was told it was no longer welcome.

This is called using diplomacy… And note the lack of the word Bush in the paragraph… it’s almost as if the administration when you’re friendly to a regime, you don’t invade. You pressure them, etc. Realpolitik would’ve recommended that we not say word one about this issue, since it’s in our best interest to keep Mubarak (or whoever had the reins of authoritay) in power – because realpolitik prefers the devil you know, especially if it’s controlling the madman you suspect is out there. Since Bush has influence (trade, aid programs, etc), they deal with the situation diplomatically, which will take some time.

Or are you calling for the invasion of Egypt?

Realpolitik would ve suggested Rice keep her trap shut and visit Karimov and shake his hands& (ala Rumsfeld in the 80s).

That is not what happened here.

No, it happened here.

The US government, despite its interest in preserving its air base and other facilities in Uzbekistan, has also been active in programmes designed to move the country into more democratic ways and to eliminate human rights abuses  with the result that Karimov has now broken with Washington, closed its bases, and formed a new and close relationship with Beijing (and Moscow).

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 25, 2006; Page A01

Sitting in a prison cell halfway around the planet, an Egyptian opposition leader forced President Bush this month to confront the question of how serious he was when he vowed to devote his second term to “ending tyranny in our world.”

Ayman Nour, who dared challenge Egypt’s authoritarian leader in manipulated elections, was sentenced on Christmas Eve to five years on what U.S. officials consider bogus charges. Inside the administration, a debate ensued over whether to shelve a new trade agreement with Egypt in protest. In the end, the trade talks were suspended and an Egyptian negotiating team invited to Washington last week was told it was no longer welcome.

This is called using diplomacy… when you’re friendly to a regime, you don’t invade. You pressure them, etc. Realpolitik would’ve recommended that we not say word one about this issue, since it’s in our best interest to keep Mubarak (or whoever had the reins of authoritay) in power – because realpolitik prefers the devil you know, especially if it’s controlling the madman you suspect is out there. Since Bush has influence (trade, aid programs, etc), they deal with the situation diplomatically, which will take some time.

Or are you calling for the invasion of Egypt?

That is not what happened here.

Here you go:

Rice, on Way to Central Asia, Reprimands Uzbekistan

By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 11, 2005; A13

SHANNON, Ireland, Oct. 10 — Signaling a deepening split with one of the United States’ closest allies in the war on terrorism, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rebuked Uzbekistan on Monday for spurning appeals from abroad on human rights and called the Tashkent government “out of step” with political trends in the rest of Central Asia.

The United States can find alternatives to Uzbekistan to fight the war on terrorism, Rice told reporters as she flew to the region for a tour that is pointedly avoiding the country. Uzbekistan has provided a base at Karshi-Khanabad, known as K-2, for military and humanitarian operations in neighboring Afghanistan since shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Bush administration is seeking to retain overflight rights for warplanes and shipments of relief goods, U.S. officials say. But Washington has now virtually given up on any further cooperation from President Islam Karimov, who in July ordered U.S. forces to leave K-2 within six months. He also quietly ended cooperation on counterterrorism programs, U.S. officials have said, effectively walking away from a broad agreement for cooperation on terrorism issues signed when Karimov visited President Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Uzbekistan is out of step with what is happening in this region as a whole,” Rice told reporters on the first leg of her flight to Central Asia. “The ability of Uzbekistan to progress economically and politically is going to depend on the freedom and creativity of its people, and that’s not happening.”
[...]

Would these words ever come out of Henry Kissinger’s mouth?

You seriously can’t state that this is a move out of the playbook of realpolitik.

Realpolitik would ve recommended that we not say word one about this issue, since it s in our best interest to keep Mubarak (or whoever had the reins of authoritay) in power

It’s only “realpolitik” if you pretend it’s not happening?

Feh.

Nooo. Not at all….

http://www.thememoryhole.org/pol/us-and-uz.htm

(it’s got pictures too!!)

And if you bring up the word rendition, I ll smack you& b/c you d bitch if we kept the  detainees on US bases, so you can t bitch when we send them back to their country of citizenship.

You mean like these guys?

Deported Terror Suspect Details Torture in Syria
(Canadian citizen) Link

Man sues CIA over torture claims
(German Citizen)Link

Do you have contemept for your readers or are you just too lazy or too stupid to research?

And if you bring up the word rendition, I ll smack you&

Rendition.

Do your worst, big stuff.

The limited technical assistance we have given to Uzbekistan has all, including the small military training programme, been specifically directed at promoting democracy and improvements in human rights behaviour,

Who is “we”?

The limited technical assistance we have given to Uzbekistan has all, including the small military training programme, been specifically directed at promoting democracy and improvements in human rights behaviour, including in particular programmes aimed at the elimination of torture (see the details of British  aid programmes on the Blairwatch blog, cited earlier). Indeed, these could well be seen as tending to undermine the Karimov regime rather than propping it up. The US government, despite its interest in preserving its air base and other facilities in Uzbekistan, has also been active in programmes designed to move the country into more democratic ways and to eliminate human rights abuses  with the result that Karimov has now broken with Washington, closed its bases, and formed a new and close relationship with Beijing (and Moscow). Much good that will do for the oppressed Uzbek people! Anyway, it s a strange form of complicity in torture that takes the form of aid programmes designed to wean the government off it.

Where you have diplomatic influence to force a change, use it.

It seems that Mr. Karimov is now favoring Beijing & the USSR over the US.

But hey, Chimpy W. McBushitler is evil…

And if you bring up the word rendition, I’ll smack you… b/c you’d bitch if we kept the “detainees” on US bases, so you can’t bitch when we send them back to their country of citizenship.

Rumsfeld s visit to Hussein in the 80s was the very manifestation of realpolitik which Chimpy W. McBushitler is turning away from in the 21st century.

Really?

You mean we no longer make nice with tyrants who would do something like, say, boil political prisoners alive?

Now that Bush has reversed course, away from realpolitik, the Left wishes that Saddam was back in power (or perhaps that it could’ve been done in a “kindler, gentler” way).

The only reason for Galloway’s visit is that he’s a dork… oh, and for money, because while he’s a Leftist, he’s a greedy leftist. (Wonder how the catsuit will work in prison.)

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/

….read it..

Dammit all…..

Another wee bit of difference to consider: Rumsfeld s meeting w/ Hussein was 25 YEARS AGO

Actually Rummy had a couple of meetings with him. One was on THE VERY DAY that news that Saddam had gassed his own people hit the papers. Of course, the Reagan administration when ahead and resumed chummy relations with Saddam anyway.

Because George Galloway did this six years ago, it automatically means that every liberal throughout history has always thought it was okay to meet with Uday, and give him everything he wants!

This has been today’s lesson in Reich Wing Logic 101.