[Veto!]

From the article: This desire for partners other than Moscow and Beijing is occurring at a time when feelings of insecurity are also growing in the region due to the withdrawal of NATO and the US from Afghanistan, with fears that the resulting power vacuum will be filled by more extreme forms of Islam, either on the part of a resurgent Taliban or greater influence on the part of ISIS, which the secular Central Asian leaders fear is appealing to a small but growing radical segment of their societies (and some Central Asians are known to be fighting with ISIS in Iraq and Syria).

The US should be on a major diplomatic offensive to establish good and workable relations with the "Stans," to keep peace in the area. We already screwed up Afghanistan, but the other stans don't seem to be as primitively islamic and conceivably could be a peaceful buffer zone.

Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan

[elcid1970]

All of those `Stans were under Soviet rule until 1991. As a result they are still relatively secularized compared to Afghanistan & stand a chance of real progress.

I was at Camp Stronghold Freedom in Uzbekistan in 2004. We regarded Uzbeks as similar to us, wanting good jobs & security. They were highly suspicious of Afghans & seemed to regard Islam as a skin ailment, especially the young women.

Our evil State Department IMO deliberately roiled the waters over Andijon & got us kicked out.