Posted on 07/29/2005 11:30:15 PM PDT by HAL9000
WASHINGTON, July 30 (Reuters) - Uzbekistan has told the United States to quit a military base that has served as a hub for missions to Afghanistan since shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks, a Pentagon spokesman said on Saturday.A notice to leave Karshi-Khanabad air base, also known as K2, was delivered on Friday by a courier from the Uzbek Foreign Ministry to the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent, the Washington Post reported in its Saturday edition, citing an unnamed senior U.S. official involved in Central Asia policy.
Asked about the report, Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said early on Saturday, "We are aware of the diplomatic note to the U.S. Embassy on the issue of K2 air field and we are working with the State Department, evaluating the note to see exactly what it means."
State department officials could not be reached for comment.
Uzbekistan will give the United States 180 days to move aircraft, personnel and equipment, the newspaper said. It said the United States expects Uzbekistan to follow through on the eviction notice.
The action would create logistical problems for U.S. operations in Afghanistan, the newspaper said. Scores of flights have used the air field to transfer humanitarian goods that are then taken by road into northern Afghanistan, it said.
"The air field has been important to us and the U.S. allies in operations over there," Flood said.
The United States has regarded its bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan as vital for operations in Afghanistan. However, the U.S. presence in Central Asia has caused tensions with Russia and China, which joined the five ex-Soviet Central Asian states earlier this month to demand a U.S. deadline for leaving the bases.
U.S. relations with authoritarian Uzbekistan also have been strained by the Uzbek government's bloody suppression in May of a rebellion in the eastern town of Andizhan, which drew U.S. criticism.
Just last Monday, however, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld responded to a question about maintaining the base in Uzbekistan by saying "We've had a good relationship. It's a good relationship now." He was speaking during a visit to Kyrgyzstan, whose defense minister said the United States would not need a military presence in that country once stability had returned to Afghanistan.
With "friends" like these...
good , no problem , we should leave .
have fun with your economies !
The worms are turning...again...
Next time you have trouble...don't call us...we'll call you.
I'm actually rather surprised we got use of the bases in the first place. It's too bad this had to happen.
Well crap! There goes the great liberty in Karshi-Khanabad. Anyone know where you can find a light auburn haired camel with a lazy left eye that answers to the name Susie around here?
Zackly. All that American cash pumped into the economy..Also should cut off foreign aid. Vieques Island and the Phillipines found out the hard way. These leaders maybe shoulda done some more homework.
If we can't cooperate together, maybe we'll have better luck with a new regime in Uzbekistan.
I hope all US aid will leave with our airbase as well. This is the costliest decision the Uzbek government will ever make.
frankly I'd love to see a new US foreign policy in general ,
call it; whup ass and go on home ....We only have problems when we stay too long and it is rarely ever worth it.
This epitomizes the wisdom of Rumsfeld's "light and manueverable" US military strategy. Because our footprint in Uzbekistan was never large in the first place it will be capable of being absorbed into the Kyrgistan and elsewhere.
This is an inconvenience but it is not devastating.
Just think down the road if Iraq or Quatar says enough, and we leave. The wack'os will play it as they "kicked" us out. Sooner or later we have to leave them to their own country. Canada doesn't even want us to shoot missles down that are aimed at Canada.
We've had Germans and other friendlies stationed here for awhile, but if you get more than a few hundred, the "Art Bell" crowd starts to think UN takeover or something.
Uzbekistan is such a mixed bag - they fight the Islam extremists, unstable government, boil their enemies alive.....
Russians and or ChiComs are behind this.
In a place like that, it shouldn't be too hard to engineer a coup.
A lot to be said for that strategy.
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